On track to produce 177.6 mn auto-disable syringes for govt by March: HMD

The company has also shipped over 100 million pieces of KOJAK AD syringes to Covax stockpile facility, as the COVID-19 vaccines are showing promising results across the globe, HMD said in a statement. The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have recommended that auto-disable syringes should be used for administering vaccines, particularly in mass immunisation programmes, it added.

 Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) on Monday said it is on track to produce 177.6 million 0.5 ml KOJAK auto-disable syringes for the government by March 2021. The company has also shipped over 100 million pieces of KOJAK AD syringes to Covax stockpile facility, as the COVID-19 vaccines are showing promising results across the globe, HMD said in a statement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have recommended that auto-disable syringes should be used for administering vaccines, particularly in mass immunisation programmes, it added. "The front runner COVID vaccines being launched in India would need a 0.5ml AD syringe for intramuscular drug delivery we are informed. In addition to the annual procurement of 300-350 million of these syringes by GoI for the Universal Immunisation Programme, additional orders have been placed on us by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,"  HMD MD Rajiv Nath said.

HMD is on track to produce 177.6 million 0.5 ml KOJAK AD syringes for the union government by March 2021 and 60 million are already in the company's stock, awaiting dispatch instructions, he added. "We have requested the government to provide us clarity on the various kinds of syringes required for the vaccine candidates under development as some of these would be by intradermal delivery or intra nasal delivery or possibly oral delivery. Each type would require a matching specialised syringe type. We need early intimation for boosting the capacities further," Nath said.

As India gets ready for COVID-19 vaccine, the government should be well equipped with a secured stock of syringes in advance to administer a vaccine when it is ready, he added.  "The estimated demand in India would be around 900 million of different kinds of syringes for just one shot of vaccine, considering 60-70 per cent of the country is being vaccinated. The number would amplify to 1.8 billion if the vaccine India chooses, needs two shots," Nath said. He also appealed to the government on behalf of the Indian syringe manufacturers to increase the import duty on syringes to enable a level playing field.

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