Anticipating surge in demand for syringes amid Covid-19 vaccines showing promising results, India’s biggest manufacturer of syringes, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD), is all set to achieve 1000 million production capacity per annum by end of second quarter next year, up from current capacity of 700 million of the specialized 0.5 ml AD Syringes.
“We plan to allocate 50 per cent of the total 0.5 ML AD Syringes produced for the Government and 50 per cent for export to UNICEF as we have got a global responsibility too,” said Rajiv Nath, Managing Director of the HMD.
He also said that his company has recently shipped over 100 million pieces of KOJAK Auto Disable syringes to Covax stockpile facility as the Covid-19 vaccines are showing promising results across the globe.
The Covax facility working for global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines has ordered 140 million KOJAK AD Syringes from HMD to be supplied between August and December 2020.
“The HMD has shipped out more than 100 million pieces of 0.5 ml auto disable (AD) syringes for intramuscular injections to Covax facility and will soon send the next 40 million Syringes by December” he added.The WHO and UNICEF have recommended that auto-disable syringes be used for administering vaccines— particularly in mass immunization programs.
However, Nath felt that even as the local company like his is globally competitive, “we lose out to cheap subsidized Chinese imports and the requirement to match L1 (lowest) price of Chinese imports becomes non-remunerative and discourages investments.
“Currently, over 50 per cent of the AD Syringes used in immunization come in from China. We urge the government to increase import duty on syringes from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent to enable expansion of supply base and profitable growth of quality certified production of all components and products in India.”