To dispatch next shipment of 28 million syringes by end October
Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) has dispatched the first shipment of 56 million pieces of KOJAK Auto Disable Syringes to the COVAX Alliance. This is part of HMD’s total order of 140 million KOJAK AD Syringes to be supplied between August and December 2020.
The COVAX alliance is a pooled procurement mechanism, co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO, aiming to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world
Giving more details, Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, HMD informed that besides the more than 56 million pieces of 5 ml auto disabled (AD) syringes for intra muscular syringes shipped to the COVAX facility, the company will soon send the next shipment of 28 million syringes by end October.
While HMD is geared up to meet syringe demands, Nath indicates that they are still waiting for the Indian government to start creating a stockpile of syringes as is being done by other countries.
“Should the government need 100 million KOJAK Auto-Disable Syringes for COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year, we can easily offer to lift the outstanding orders placed with us. However, Indian government is yet to make a move or ordering though they have started consulting manufacturers for spare capacity availability beyond the standard immunisation programme. We plan to allocate 50 per cent of the total 0.5 ML AD Syringes produced for the government of India and 50 per cent for export as we have got a global responsibility too. But we would appreciate a clarity from the government soon,” added Nath.
The company has reportedly received inquiries from countries like Japan and US for disposable syringes and Indonesia for auto disposable syringes as countries start to stockpile in anticipation of COVID-19 vaccine candidates passing the various stages of clinical trials.
In anticipation of increased demand once COVID-19 vaccines are approved for population-wide vaccinations, HMD has planned to scale up its production capacity to one billion of 0.5 ML by middle of 2021 from 700 million AD Syringes a year.