The COVID-19 vaccine race has caused unprecedented demand for companies that make freezers and glass vials

• Manufacturing companies are working overtime as they prepare to deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
• Glass vial maker Schott expects to produce enough vials to store 2 billion vaccine doses.
• Meanwhile, freezer company Binder's production has ramped up 200% in recent weeks.
• In the coming days this system will be tested when Pfizer starts sending about 800,000 vaccines to the UK.

The German company Schott has been manufacturing glass for more than a century. And with a coronavirus vaccine seemingly around the corner, its challenge has never been greater.

Seventy-five percent of all COVID-19 vaccine trials around the world are using Schott's glass vials, according to the manufacturer.

To meet the growing demand, their employees are working around the clock separated in three different shifts.

"It is certainly going to be a stretch, but we think the goal is achievable," the company's head of communications, Christina Rettig, told AFP. "Producing these vials is something that companies like Schott, but also others, do on a daily basis, million-fold."

By the end of next year the company expects to produce enough vials to store 2 billion vaccine doses.

For another German company called Binder, the situation is also an opportunity like no other. Binder makes freezers that can store more than 100,000 doses of vaccines.

"The fact that we need to vaccinate the entire world at once is something that has never happened before, and that the fact that this vaccine needs these low temperatures is a stroke of luck for us," said Peter Wimmer, Binder's vice president.

A spokesperson told Insider that in recent weeks, Binder's production has increased by about 200%.

One of their clients is BioNTech, a company that has partnered on Pfizer's vaccine, which has to be kept at a temperature of -94 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer's vaccines are expected to be shipped in special boxes that will be loaded on 24 trucks a day from the pharmaceutical company's hubs in Michigan and Belgium, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Pfizer's vaccine has been 95% effective in trials and is awaiting FDA approval.

Unlike Pfizer's, Moderna's has to be stored in a normal fridge for a month. After that, it needs to be kept at colder temperatures. Moderna is also seeking FDA approval for its vaccine that has proven to be 94% effective in recent trials.