In the production workshop of Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, machines operate around the clock.

On the conveyor belt, rows of crystal-clear medicinal glass bottles emerge one after another—packed into cartons, labeled, and shipped to pharmaceutical companies across the globe. These small bottles may contain a vaccine, a life-saving cancer medication, or an injectable medical aesthetic product.

After over three decades of development, Zhengchuan Pharmaceutical Glass Co., Ltd. has grown from a small manual workshop with only 18 employees into a leading enterprise in the specialized sector of pharmaceutical glass controlled vials, with its products distributed nationwide and exported to more than 20 countries and regions worldwide.

Deng Yong, Chairman of Zhengchuan Pharmaceutical, shared a story about a small medicine bottle with Writeyin, recounting how Zhengchuan Pharmaceutical grew from scratch into a leading pharmaceutical packaging enterprise with 1,500 employees, four production bases, over 10 kilns, more than 1,000 controlled bottle production lines, and an annual output exceeding 12 billion medical glass bottles.

01. Past events of Zhengchuan

On an autumn day in 1988, the workers of TANKOU glass factory made the first medicinal glass bottle in the history of Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. by hand. There was no flower ribbon cutting, no media reports, no opening ceremony, and even no official sign hanging. The story of Zhengchuan shares was officially opened here.

Deng Yong recalled that the first products produced at that time were mainly oral liquid bottles. The working conditions in the factory are very hard. The workers pull the glass tubes by hand. The back sealer's hand is injured all year round, and the blisters are connected with calluses, but the production has not stopped.

It was in such a difficult environment that Zhengchuan stock achieved its first success. Since then, the production equipment has gradually expanded from the initial 4 to 11, and the TANKOU glass factory has entered the era of mechanization.

In 1996, it acquired Qijiang Zhuantang glass factory, and Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. owned its own kiln for the first time. "This is an extension from post-processing to front-end manufacturing." Deng Yong said that since then, Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. has not only purchased glass tubes for processing, but has the ability to melt and produce glass tubes by itself. Because of this, the output of Zhengchuan started to increase rapidly, and its reputation was gradually established, becoming a well-known pharmaceutical packaging material enterprise in China.

In 1997, Chongqing Zhengchuan Glass Co., Ltd. was restructured and established. In 1999, the bottle cap branch was established, and Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. realized the integrated production from tube drawing to bottle making and then to supporting bottle caps.

In Deng Yong's narration, almost every key node of Zhengchuan's development is accompanied by a risky technical decision.

In 2001, Zhengchuan made what was regarded as a bold transformation at that time - changing the gas furnace into an electric furnace. "We are the first one in China to use an electric furnace to draw low borosilicate glass tubes." Deng Yong recalled that at that time, authoritative experts in the industry believed that this decision was too risky.
The risk lies in the huge investment. Once the R & D and transformation fail, hundreds of millions of investment will be wasted. At that time, the company had not yet been listed, and almost all the funds came from its own accumulation.

At that time, Zhengchuan stock faced double pressure. First, the local government no longer allowed the construction of kiln smoke tower due to environmental protection requirements; Second, the market demand is strong, the supply of products exceeds the demand, and there is an urgent need to expand production.

Deng Yong said, "there is indeed an electric furnace for glass smelting, but no one used it for tube drawing before. We must combine electric furnace smelting with glass tube drawing." this technical route was gradually promoted in the industry later, which directly led to the change of low borosilicate glass tube production mode.

In August 2017, Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. was listed on the main board of Shanghai Stock Exchange, becoming the first private pharmaceutical glass packaging enterprise listed in China. After its listing, Zhengchuan made another far-reaching decision to introduce borosilicate kiln technology from Europe.

Borosilicate glass is a kind of glass with the highest technical requirements in the field of pharmaceutical glass. Compared with low borosilicate glass, medium borosilicate glass has obvious advantages in water resistance, acid and alkaline resistance and freezing resistance, and is not prone to flake phenomenon due to long-term immersion of drug solution.

Europe and the United States and other markets require the use of borosilicate glass packaging for injection preparations and biological agents. But at that time, almost all the borosilicate glass tubes needed in China were imported, and the supply was mainly in the hands of German Schott, Japanese electric nitrate and American Corning.
Zhengchuan chose to import a full set of oxygen plus electric melting medium boron furnaces and related technologies from Europe. Deng Yong personally led a team to Europe for investigation and negotiation, and finally spent 150million yuan to introduce the equipment.

In 2020, the new coronavirus epidemic broke out. A news of the shortage of glass bottles of neocrown vaccine quickly attracted great attention from the capital market. Zhengchuan shares were labeled with the concept of "vaccine glass bottle", and the share price fluctuated sharply. But at that time, Zhengchuan shares was in a state of anxiety.

Affected by the epidemic, overseas technicians could not enter the country, and the kilns were not officially put into production for a long time. Deng Yong can only lead the team to communicate with overseas technicians online. Finally, under the difficult remote guidance, in 2020, the first borosilicate glass furnace of Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. using all European furnace technology was successfully ignited and put into operation.

According to Deng Yong, more than 1.5 billion glass bottles of vaccines were supplied by Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. during the centralized vaccination of Xinguan vaccine, and one of every two vaccinated people in the country used the bottles produced by Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. "This is my biggest contribution to the industry and even to the whole society," said Deng Yong.

Public information shows that in 2020, Zhengchuan shares added more than 170 cooperative customers of China boron products. In 2022, the second independently designed and improved borosilicate glass furnace of Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. was ignited and put into operation, and the company has become the leading domestic enterprise in the field of borosilicate medicinal glass.

According to the 2025 financial report, Zhengchuan has formulated a clear medium - and long-term development plan for various borosilicate glass products. The company plans to build eight borosilicate kilns to achieve a production capacity of 50000 tons of borosilicate glass tubes and an annual production capacity of 15billion branch pipes for bottle making.

02. Breaking out at sea

As the domestic market tends to be saturated, going to sea has become the strategic choice of Zhengchuan shares.

According to the Research Report of Southwest Securities, the proportion of medium borosilicate glass packaging in the U.S. market has reached 84%, and the total of sodium calcium and low borosilicate only accounts for 16%. The international market is mature and dominated by giants. Zhengchuan's rivals are international leading enterprises such as Schott and BD.

Deng Yong pointed out that compliance is the first threshold for going to sea. FDA and EP certification in Europe and the United States have a long audit cycle and high investment, and the production process, quality inspection system and data traceability must be adapted again.

Above the threshold of access, there is also the challenge of brand cognition. The global high-end market has been monopolized by international giants for a long time, and the brand recognition of domestic pharmaceutical glass is low. Channels can be replenished quickly, but trust takes time to accumulate.

Deng Yong observed that the core factor of overseas pharmaceutical enterprises' hesitation on Chinese suppliers is not quality, but declaration risk. "With the products of Schott and BD to declare, the drug regulatory department's evaluation was basically smooth all the way. But if we use Chinese brands, our attitude will be much more cautious. We are afraid that the data will be returned and the cycle will be prolonged, and the enterprise cannot afford this risk. ”This practical trade-off based on declaration efficiency is more difficult to overcome than the quality gap.

In terms of specific strategies, Zhengchuan shares has adopted a differentiated layout according to the characteristics of different markets. In order to find out the market situation, Deng Yong personally led a team to visit South Korea, Russia, the United States, Turkey and other places, and made a preliminary survey of key markets.

The company finally decided to give priority to developing emerging pharmaceutical markets such as South America and the Middle East, and undertake batch orders for just needed medicine packs; We will steadily attack high-end markets in Europe, Japan, South Korea, North America and other countries, focusing on borosilicate series products with high compliance requirements.

With the continuous efforts of domestic pharmaceutical glass brands represented by Zhengchuan shares, the market pattern is slowly changing. Deng Yong observed, "in the past two years, new R & D units are also slowly accepting domestic products, especially innovative drugs."

At present, Zhengchuan shares have been sold in nearly 20 countries around the world. In 2025, the company's overseas revenue increased by 684.9% year on year. Although the number is bright, Deng Yong knows that the real challenge of going to sea has just begun.

Deng Yong attributed Zhengchuan's core advantages in the international market to three points: cost performance, service capability and integrated production capacity.

Under the prevailing division of labor mode in the industry, glass tubes, bottle making and bottle caps are completed by different enterprises in sections, with standard separation and poor fitting of accessories. When pharmaceutical enterprises carry out related review or variety change, they need to coordinate multiple suppliers to gather data and unify standards, which is cumbersome and lengthy.

Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. is one of the few enterprises with integrated closed-loop production capacity of "tube drawing, bottle making and cap making". The compatibility accuracy and chemical stability of bottle cap and bottle body are highly controllable due to the same formula, same process and unified quality control standard; The whole process data are archived in a unified manner, and the responsible subject is the only one, which can cooperate with pharmaceutical enterprises in depth to complete the associated review and the iterative filing of varieties. This system has solved the safety and efficiency issues that pharmaceutical enterprises are most concerned about.

This closed-loop industrial chain also brings cost advantages. Due to the omission of outsourcing intermediate links, the cost performance is better than that of overseas local manufacturers.

In terms of refined supporting services, Zhengchuan also provides customized development, cross-border performance and after-sales traceability services, which can bring customers a better service experience than overseas manufacturers.

Whether these capabilities can truly shake the industry position of international giants still needs time to test, but Zhengchuan has obtained the ticket to participate in the global competition.

03. Take advantage of new drugs to find the second growth curve

If oral liquid bottle represents the past of Zhengchuan and chemical medicine bottle represents the present, biopharmaceuticals is the future.

China's innovative drugs are ushering in unprecedented development opportunities. In 2025, the State Food and Drug Administration approved a total of 76 innovative drugs to be listed, a significant increase of 58.3% from 48 in 2024, reaching a record high, including 47 chemicals, 23 biological products and 6 traditional Chinese medicines.
From "following" to "running together", and then to "leading" in some fields, China's innovative drugs are reshaping the global pharmaceutical industry at an unprecedented speed. This wave has also opened up a new growth space for upstream packaging enterprises.

The layout of Zhengchuan shares in the field of biomedicine was more than one step earlier than the time when the market realized the value of this track.

In most developed countries, it is mandatory to use borosilicate glass packaging for injectable preparations and biological agents. Therefore, most of the original drugs of foreign injections are packaged in borosilicate pharmaceutical glass. The borosilicate glass tube is an important raw material for the production of borosilicate tube bottles, which can be made into controlled injection bottles, ampoules, pre filled syringes, cartridge bottles and other series products.

Deng Yong said that Zhengchuan has seen this trend for a long time, but the penetration rate of borosilicate glass in China is relatively low. If enterprises want to build medium and high-end pharmaceutical glass product lines on a large scale, they need to bear great risks. Some domestic manufacturers have invested in this field for sevenoreight years, but have never opened the market.

"We were also considering at that time, because not investing means that there may be no business in the future, but it may not be sold after investing." Deng Yong said.
It was the direct feedback from customers during the new coronavirus epidemic that really prompted Zhengchuan to make up its mind to enter the field of biomedicine on a large scale. At that time, Zhengchuan stock supplied a large number of vials for vaccines. A customer clearly told Deng Yong, "you must do pre encapsulation in the future. If you don't, we will use pre encapsulation instead of vials in the future."

This direct feedback from pharmaceutical enterprises made Deng Yong make up his mind.

In April, 2023, Zhengchuan invested 300million yuan to build the first production line of pre filled syringes, cartridges and wash and extinguish free series products, which was put into production in Shuitu new town, Liangjiang New Area. The company plans 21 production lines with an annual production capacity of nearly 1billion. Nowadays, Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. has fully possessed the large-scale production capacity of pre filled syringes, cartridge bottles, wash and kill free vials and other products. The product line covers various specifications from 0.5ml to 10ml, and has completed the international and domestic filing work such as FDA and CDE.

In June 2026, Zhengchuan also reached a strategic cooperation agreement with spami company under stevanato group. Stevanato group, founded in 1949 and headquartered in Italy, is a supplier serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life sciences industries. Its subsidiary, oubi, enjoys a high reputation in the fields of pre filled syringes, cartridge bottles and wash and extinguish free series products, while oubi's technical foundation comes from spami, which belongs to the same group. The latter has unique technical ability in the molding of borosilicate glass tube bottles.

Over the past few decades, oubi and spami have worked closely together to achieve information exchange and technology sharing through the practical application of end customers, with the core goal of solving the stringent requirements of complex biological agents on borosilicate glass packaging materials, and continued rapid iteration of technology, leading the global drug packaging materials to a higher level.

The strategic cooperation between Zhengchuan and spami this time is based on Zhengchuan's demands for improving the quality of borosilicate glass packaging materials and the acceptability of global market declaration. Spami will provide better solutions in terms of silicone oil coating optimization, reducing precipitation, reducing tungsten salt residue, and improving the adaptability of biological preparation protein products. At the same time, spami will also enable Zhengchuan to have the production capacity of double cavity pre filled syringes through double cavity forming equipment to meet the needs of new drug research and development.

Facts have proved that Deng Yong's judgment is correct. From the market point of view, pre filled syringes are increasingly becoming the preferred mode of administration of biological agents. According to delvelnsight's prediction, the global pre encapsulated syringe market will continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 10.73% from 2025 to 2032, and the scale is expected to reach US $27.99 billion in 2032. Behind it is the centralized release of demand in downstream biological drugs, vaccines, medical aesthetics and other fields, which is pushing this segment of the track into an accelerated period.

At present, pre filled syringes have been widely used in biological products, antithrombotic drugs, medical beauty products and other fields. From vaccines to oncology drugs, from monoclonal antibodies to emerging peptide therapies, more and more drugs choose to be pre encapsulated. Deng Yong is optimistic that the middle and high-end series products such as pre filled syringes, cartridges and RTUs will become the second growth curve of Zhengchuan shares in the future.

The policy level is also promoting this trend. According to the technical guidelines for pharmaceutical change research of listed biological products (Trial), changes in different packaging forms or dosing devices are managed according to different specifications and need to be reported separately. This means that once the biopharmaceutical enterprise selects the packaging material supplier at the research and development stage, it will face cumbersome change procedures to replace the packaging after the product is approved for marketing.

Deng Yong's view is very clear. It is necessary to intervene in the R & D stage of Biopharmaceutical Enterprises to use Zhengchuan's products for experiments and applications. Once the product is approved for marketing, the packaging material supplier will not be easily replaced, which means a cooperative relationship lasting for ten years or even longer.

"We should build an industrial ecosystem of deep collaboration with R & D enterprises, so as to achieve long-term stable cooperation." Deng Yong said.

04. The long-term story of Zhengchuan shares

In the past 30 years, Zhengchuan has always been rooted in the pharmaceutical packaging material industry, not following the trend and crossing the border. In the era of cross-border tide, it is rare for Zhengchuan shares to stick to its main business so much.

Deng Yong admitted that he once had the idea of cross-border investment, but never encountered a better opportunity, and gave up the idea temporarily after several attempts.

In Deng Yong's view, although the pharmaceutical packaging material industry is "slow", it is "stable" enough. As long as the pharmaceutical industry continues to exist, the demand for pharmaceutical packaging materials will not disappear.

"Since we set foot in the pharmaceutical packaging material industry in the 1980s, we have witnessed the gradual growth of the industry and have a good understanding of its operation rules and problems. This is a slow cycle and slow industry, but it is stable enough."

Deng Yong also recalled a past event. Many years ago, a foreign-funded enterprise intended to acquire Zhengchuan shares. Deng Yong asked how the other side viewed this industry. He still remembers the answer.

"Pharmaceutical manufacturers may rise and fall faster, but the demand decline of the packaging industry is much slower. Pharmaceutical manufacturers need to constantly develop new products, and packaging enterprises can be tied with customers for a long time as you do well and stabilize. In the next 10 years, whether in China or the world, pharmaceutical packaging materials will always be a rigid demand."

The pharmaceutical packaging material industry has obvious head effect. Deng Yong judged that this industry will eventually evolve into a pattern dominated by several enterprises, and what Zhengchuan shares should do is to become one of these few enterprises.

From a manual workshop with 18 people to an industry leader with a production capacity of more than 12billion medicine bottles this year; From small township factories in Beibei, Chongqing, to products sold to nearly 20 countries and regions; From manually blowing oral liquid bottles to mastering the core technology of borosilicate glass tubes and layout of medium and high-end products. The story of Zhengchuan shares is a facet of China's manufacturing sector.

It is not publicity, cool, and even slightly boring. But it is this almost persistent insistence that makes a small medicine bottle an indispensable part of the pharmaceutical industry chain.