Covid-19 vaccination: HMD bags govt order for supply of 265 million auto disposable syringes

Leading disposable syringe maker Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd (HMD) has received a fresh government order for supply of 265 million AD (auto disposable) syringes. The supplies have to be carried out by September 2021. HMD will complete its earlier orders for 177.5 million 0.5 ml AD syringes by the end of March, the company said.

"This is in addition to our ongoing global commitments to support global vaccination projects for 0.1ml and 0.5 ml AD Kojak syringes in the developing world," Rajiv Nath, Managing Director of HMD said.

The syringes are used for vaccinations against a host of diseases like yellow fever, measles, hepatitis B, etc. The company also supplies syringes for Covid vaccination requirements - 0.3ml for Pfizer's vaccines and 0.5 ml AD Kojak for AstraZeneca or Serum and Bharat Biotech.

Also read: Vaccination phase 2: Govt renegotiates Covishield price at Rs 157.5 from Rs 210 earlier

"We are allocating two third capacity of KOJAK to the government of India and one third to our regular global UN clients.  We are happy to complement vaccines diplomacy with syringes diplomacy and raise the Brand India flag in over 120 countries worldwide," Nath said.

The company said it has been readying to tap the global opportunity arising out of the need for the right kind of syringes for Covid vaccine from April 2000 itself. "We have successfully retooled our existing Dispovan disposable syringes production lines to use them to make KOJAK Auto Disable Syringes. We have had to rehire the 1,000 people to replace those who had left us during the onset of Covid and train them the skills and quality consciousness. Fortunately, our technology permits this flexibility of switching between these designs and we have a capable and motivated team to take on these challenges of spike in global demand and scramble for the humble 3 cent (approximately Rs 2 ) syringes that's needed for drug delivery of relatively expensive vaccines that cost 100 to 1000 times. HMD initiated investment of over 15 million dollars (approx Rs 100 crore) in May 2020 to mass produce specialty syringes even before purchase orders were even in sight," Nath said.

From 500 million pieces per annum capacity of 0.5 ml AD Syringes in June 2020, the company is today producing 800 million per annum and trying to achieve capacity of 1 billion by June and 1.2 billion per annum by September this year.

Also read: HMD to produce 1 billion syringes by 2021 to push COVID-19 vaccination