Historical review of glasses used for parenteral packaging

Abstract

Glass has long been used for packaging precious liquids, in particular pharmaceuticals. Its unique combination of hermeticity, transparency, strength and chemical durability make it the optimal material for such an important role. Today's life-saving drugs are stored in borosilicate glasses which evolved from applications in microscope optics and thermometers. As the glass compositions improved, so did the methods used to shape them and the tests used to characterize them. While all of these advances improved the quality of the glass container and its ability to protect the contents, problems still exist such as delamination, cracks and glass particulates. Finally, we review new developments in glass composition development, performance and testing in the 21st century.