When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, the race was on to not only develop a vaccine but to find ways to distribute it around the world. As drugmakers unexpectedly developed vaccines in a matter of months, the next critical step was to figure out how to contain, store, and safely ship massive quantities of the drugs so they could be administered at clinics, doctors’ offices, hospitals, and drive-through sites everywhere.

For Italy-based Stevanato Group, a producer of pharmaceutical glass containers, it was an opportunity to respond to a global health crisis, expand its already growing business, and improve on an innovation the firm had developed a few years earlier that could accelerate the vaccine shipping and distribution network.