Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Industry Technology | Life Sciences Technologies | Corning

From discovery to packaging─ delivering solutions that enable life-changing,
life-saving medicine

Corning has been a trusted supplier to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries since we introduced PYREX® glass in 1915. Today, we are a leader in life sciences laboratory tools and products, cell culture solutions, bioprocess vessels, and specialty surfaces. We are also helping to provide more reliable access to medicine with our revolutionary new glass packaging for drug storage and delivery.

Helping People Make and Deliver Medical Innovations

Helping People Make & Deliver Medical Innovations

We all want medicines that are safe and effective – that help us live longer, healthier lives. Corning's Life Sciences plays a crucial role in making this possible. In nearly every life sciences laboratory in the world, scientists rely on our products to develop the next wave of medical breakthroughs. We’re also using our industry expertise to shatter the market for traditional glass pharmaceutical packaging. New Corning Valor® Glass is a revolutionary technology that better protects drugs than the industry standard glass. And those drugs protect lives.

Throughout our century of experience with Life Sciences, we have become an important partner for researchers.

Corning works with scientists to help solve their specific challenges. Our trusted brands – including PYREX® glass, Falcon® products, and Axygen® products – can be found in more than 100,000 laboratories worldwide and are known for their quality, consistency, and reliability. Our technology is helping scientists tap into the power of cell therapy to cure disease, as well as leading the way with life sciences tools for 3D cell culture, bioprocessing, and genomics research.

In the world of pharmaceutical packaging, medicines are stored in the same packaging materials that were designed many decades ago.  Conventional pharmaceutical packaging has not evolved in parallel with drug formulations and high speed processing equipment. Valor Glass addresses the need for modernization of pharmaceutical packaging.

To develop this product, we applied our expertise in optical physics, vapor deposition, precision forming, and extrusion to develop a 21st century glass container to protect 21st century drugs. The result is Valor Glass, a revolutionary breakthrough in pharmaceutical glass packaging technology that enhances the storage and delivery of today’s drug formulations and provides more reliable access to medicines essential to public health. Valor Glass dramatically reduces the probability of contamination by particles, breaks, and through cracks and also significantly increases throughput for manufacturers. Major pharmaceutical companies are working with Corning to bring this life sciences technology to patients.

Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive Innovation

Our century-long history in life sciences begins with the perfect cake dish. In 1913 Bessie Littleton baked a cake on a piece of heat-resistant glass, brought home by her Corning physicist husband. The glass formula became PYREX®, a durable line of cookware and laboratory products. PYREX labware was pivotal to the mass production of penicillin during World War II, as well as to the development and production of the polio vaccine in the 1950s.  Corning later introduced more technologies to accelerate vaccine development and enable cell-culture research. Since then, our cell culture vessels have set the global standard for cell culture in drug discovery and development. Valor Glass is our latest disruptive innovation in life sciences, which has the potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical packaging. 

Our Strategic Advantage in Life Sciences

Our Strategic Advantage in Life Sciences

Our life sciences innovations draw on our three best-in-the-world core technologies and four expert manufacturing and engineering platforms – as well as trusted customer relationships.  

Learn how Corning leverages its focused portfolio to uniquely address the Life Sciences market.

glass pharmaceutical packaging

Expertise in Glass

Expertise in Glass

Glass science expertise enables Corning to maintain leadership in Life Sciences and create next-generation pharmaceutical packaging.

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Glass science expertise enables Corning to maintain leadership in Life Sciences and create next-generation pharmaceutical packaging.

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precision forming process

Precision Forming Process

Precision Forming Process

Corning uses its precision forming assets to make life sciences vessels that require an extremely high degree of accuracy, such as liquid-handling tools and cell growth surfaces.

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Corning uses its precision forming assets to make life sciences vessels that require an extremely high degree of accuracy, such as liquid-handling tools and cell growth surfaces.

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the extrusion process

The Extrusion Process

The Extrusion Process

With its extrusion capabilities, Corning makes highly reliable and accurate pipettes for life sciences applications.


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With its extrusion capabilities, Corning makes highly reliable and accurate pipettes for life sciences applications.


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