A sterile glass pharmaceutical container or vessel such as, but not limited to, vials for holding pharmaceutical products or vaccines in a hermetic and/or sterile state. The sterile glass pharmaceutical container undergoes a strengthening process that produces compression at the surface and tension within the container wall. The strengthening process is designed such that the tension within the wall is great enough to ensure catastrophic failure of the pharmaceutical container, thus rendering the product unusable, should sterility be compromised by a through-wall crack. The tension is greater than a threshold central tension, above which catastrophic failure of the pharmaceutical container is guaranteed, thus eliminating any potential for violation of pharmaceutical integrity or sterility (such as stable cracks) in the glass packaging which are not easily identifiable in an otherwise seemingly intact pharmaceutical container.
