Ahead of Covid vaccine, government & companies stock up vials, syringes

New Delhi: The government and pharma companies have started stockpiling syringes and vials, as they begin the groundwork for a rapid, safe and efficient delivery of potential vaccines.“Scaling up the manufacturing of syringes and other medical products required to deliver a vaccine to the Indian population will be just as important as the vaccine itself,” said a senior government official. Around 300 million people are likely to receive the first shot of the vaccine as and when it becomes available in the country. That means a requirement of at least as many vials and syringes — or double that if it is a two-shot vaccine.To meet that demand, pharma companies, which are working on the potential vaccine candidate for Covid-19, have started tying up with manufacturers of vials and the rubber stoppers that are used in the vials.79419588Since most companies would trade through government institutions and not the private market, they are going for multi-dose vials which will bring down the number of units required. They will also be utilising the existing production and filing lines for potential Covid-19 vaccines. “We have started preordering and have tied up with manufacturers for volumes. The vials cannot be stored in advance, but we have tied up with various companies. We have preordered with both Indian and Chinese suppliers with capacities so that there is no rush when we need it,” said a senior person from a vaccine manufacturing company. A manufacturer of syringes said the government had yet to disclose its requirements.“The government has not listed precise requirements, but estimates are to vaccinate 900 million in all. For two shots per person 1,800 million injections are required,” said Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices managing director Rajiv Nath.At present, “we have got an order for 52 million and we have been told to expect another order for 41 million. It’s in the pipeline. Total requirement of 93 million to be supplied by March next year as an add on requirement to the tender that we already have in place,” he said. Additionally, HMD has shipped more than 100 million syringes to Unicef for the Covax facility. The company has increased its annual manufacturing capacity from 550 million of 0.5ml AD syringes per month in June to 700 million currently. This will be further increased to 800 million by next quarter and to 1 billion by the end of June 2021.

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