HMD gets WHO-PQS certification for 0.3 ml Kojak AD Syringe, required for Pfizer’s vaccine

The Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD) receives the WHO- Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS) certification for its 0.3 ml Kojak AD Syringes, which are mainly required for the Pfizer’s Corona vaccine. The company is also ramping up its production capacity of 0.5 ml Kojak AD (Auto disposal) syringe.

Commenting on the WHO-PQS Certification, “Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices, said, “On December 31, 2020, we got the WHO- PQS certification for our 0.3 ml Kojak AD Syringes. This is required for Pfizer’s vaccine and we started developing in November on request of PATH and UNICEF. The standard AD 0.5 ml syringes could not be used to inject this vaccine. We have already informed the Government of India about its crucial availability without which public healthcare safe injection delivery of Pfizer vaccine is not possible. And next week, we expect to get orders from UNICEF also.”

Responding on the speculation that Indian government might not consider Pfizer’s Vaccine for the governmet run vaccination drive, he responded, “Due to the logistic challenge and price perspective, there is a high possibility that the government of India  might not consider Pfizer Vaccine for the governmet run vaccinations, but once the company gets the Indian drug regulators approval then it can be launched it in the private market as the company has assured to provide it’s own supply chain required for the vaccine. And people who can afford and prefer Pfizer’s Vaccine will be allow to access the vaccine similarity to other expensive vaccines like pneumococcal etc. Therefore, we are gearing up ourselves to meet the rising demands.”

He also added that the cost of vaccines, which is around $3 and $20 of Serum Institute of India and Pfizer’s vaccine respectively, but for a syringe price which is around 2.5 – 3.5 cents depending on brand plays a crucial component in safe drug delivery.”

He continued, “We are delighted to note that Indians will get access to vaccines shortly from Serum Institute followed by vaccines from Pfizer & Bharat Biotech. We are the leading  four suppliers of AD Syringes to UNICEF and largest manufacturer in India of Auto Disable syringes that ensure one injection from one syringe and recipients are assured a safe injection that’s not been used earlier. In anticipation of the unprecedented spike in demand, HMD from an annual capacity of 0.5 ml Kojak AD syringes of 560 million pcs in June has ramped up to over 700 million pcs per annum currently, which we further plan to increase to 800 million pcs per annum in first quarter of 2021 and then 1000 million pieces per annum in the second quarter of 2021 as India gets ready for COVID-19 Vaccine. If the government enters into a long term supply contract, then we can plan to produce more. On December 30, we have bid to supply 220 million syringes from April to July- August against tender of 350 million pieces sought by the Government of India of 0.5 ml AD Syringes.”

According to Nath’s estimates, the demand in India would be around 900 million pieces of different kinds of syringes for just one shot of the vaccine, considering 60-70 per cent of the country gets vaccinated. The number would amplify to 1.8 billion if the vaccine India chooses needs two shots.

The company is currently producing approximately one lakh pieces of 0.5 ml Kojak AD syringes per hour. And by April – June, we will need to build infrastructure to vaccinate over 2-2.5 lakh people per hour i.e 16 to 20 lakh people daily. With over nine plants, HMD has created a niche for their disposable syringe ―DISPOVAN, which is the most popular brand in syringe market in India with over 60 per cent market share with Dispovan Needle and Dispovan Insulin Syringes having over 70 per cent market share and thereby displaced renowned MNC‘s – an inspirational case study for other Indian entrepreneurs.”

The company supplies to the UN Agencies like UNICEF, UNOPS for and is also  manufactures auto disable syringes for curative segment.