Chennai, May 31 (IANS): With the Covid-19 vaccination rates dropping drastically, the needles and syringes major Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd (HMD) is repurposing its machines to make other classes of syringes, said a top company official.
Incidentally, one out of 7/8 persons were administered the Covid-19 vaccine world wise with HMD made syringes. The company had supplied 1.75 billion syringes of the total 13.3 billion Covid-19 vaccines administered globally.
"We are repurposing our machines to produce Smart Kojak needlestick prevention syringes for curative healthcare drug delivery and are looking to penetrate overseas markets which have higher standards for injection safety than India currently for both patients as well as healthcare workers," said Rajiv Nath, Managing Director.
According to him, the volume syringe production came down drastically a the Covid-19 vaccination rate dipped to negligible levels in the last quarter.
"Production of AD (auto disable) immunization syringes at our plant has fallen from 45-50 lacs units per day a year ago to 5-6 lakhs now," Nath remarked.
Meanwhile, in April 2023, HMD achieved the milestone of supplying 1.75 billion syringes of the total 13.3 billion Covid-19 vaccines administered globally, that is, over 13% of covid shots administered worldwide was using Kojak Selinge AD Syringes of HMD. Nearly 1 covid vaccine in every 7-8 people worldwide was administered using HMD's syringe, the company said.
"Total Government orders HMD received till date from Dec 2020 are of more than 900 million pcs of 0.5 ml Kojak Selinge AD Syringes. In addition, HMD has been supplying various sizes of Dispo Van and Kojak Selinge AD Syringes in the private sector vaccination campaign. All orders received till date from December have been supplied on time or before time as per our commitments," Pardeep, Sareen, Vice President-Marketing said.
HMD also supplied to COVAX facility of WHO (via UNICEF), approximately 650 million AD AAAAAAand disposable syringes to UNICEF, over 150 million syringes to PAHO, both of which were later distributed to various developing nations around the world. On top of the same, over 45 million syringes were supplied as an emergency supply to Japan in 2020, mostly by air freight.
"India's vaccination drive has been a role model for the world. To help vaccinate the world against covid, HMD's manufacturing plants were operational 24/7. Our machines cranked out more than 4.2 lakh syringes of various types per hour at our factories spread over 11 acres in Faridabad industrial district in Haryana," Nath said.
"HMD initially had capacity to produce over 250 crore assorted syringes of various types and sizes per year and we invested over Rs 100 crore from our own resources, without government financial support to scale this over 350 crores more syringes including expanding our vertical line of needle and capillary tubing capacities in our sincere quest for ensuring no syringe shortages," Nath added.