This is how India’s syringe makers are gearing to meet demand as world awaits Covid vaccine

MD of India's biggest syringe manufacturer, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices, estimates the country will need at least 90 crore syringes for just one shot of vaccine.

A medical worker draws liquid from a vial with a syringe | Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg

New Delhi: With Covid-19 vaccines showing promising results across the globe, countries will now start stockpiling syringes for immunisation drives. Anticipating this surge in global demand, Indian syringe makers are ramping up production capacities.

The country’s biggest manufacturer of syringes, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD), is planning to nearly double its production capacity — from 57 crore units in June to 100 crore units by next year.

“We could produce approximately 57 crore of 0.5 ml auto disable syringes till June (per annum), which we have increased to 70 crore. This will be further increased to 80 crore by the next quarter and 100 crore by the second quarter of 2021,” said Rajiv Nath, managing director, HMD, which manufactures brand Dispovan.

“We have started receiving order queries already,” he said, adding that he cannot reveal the name of the countries as discussions are ongoing.

HMD also supplies the auto disable syringes to UNICEF. “We are planning to sell half of our production to UNICEF and half to India. We have already shipped over 10 crore syringes to UNICEF for COVAX facility,” added Nath.

Rajasthan-based Iscon Surgicals, another top manufacturer of syringes in India, bagged an order from the Narendra Modi government for additional manufacturing of 5.2 crore units of syringes in October, apart from its one-and-a-half year contract for supplying 20 crore units.

“We are expecting another order from the central government by late next month,” said Sandeep Bhandari, vice president, Iscon Surgicals. “Based on the increased interest, we have started placing the purchase orders for buying raw materials. Our current production capacity is 2 crore units per month which we are planning to expand to 7.5 crore units.”

A lobby of syringe makers, All India Syringe and Needle Manufacturers Association (AISNMA), has also written to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that it can offer an additional capacity of over 35 crore syringes per month to meet the entire demand for mass vaccination through domestic production.

Global demand could be around 1,000 crore syringes

Nath, who is also forum coordinator for the medical device makers’ lobby Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), said, “Even if 60 per cent of the world’s population is immunised, it would mean 800 crore-1,000 crore syringes of various types globally would be required.”

The estimated demand in India would be around 90 crore syringes for just one shot of vaccine, Nath calculated, considering 70 per cent of the country is being vaccinated.

“The number would amplify to 180 crore or even to 270 crore, if the vaccine India chooses needs two to three shots,” he said.

Considering the volume of immunisation required in India, the industry is cautious to start early.

According to Pavan Mocherla, managing director, India/South Asia, of US-based syringe maker BD, said, “A country like India has only a short window of time to scale up syringe supplies in order to deal with the vast number of inoculations required to control the pandemic.”

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) is the largest US supplier of injection devices.

“There is a dire need of stocking ancillary devices including syringes, vials critical for immunisation. India will need to have 2.6 billion syringes and a time frame of almost two and a half years to vaccinate all India population,” he said.

Syringe industry

HMD and Iscon Surgicals supply half of the requirement for Indian government tenders for immunisation drives. The other half is supplied by Chinese syringe maker, Wuxi Medical Appliances.

While there are around 20 manufacturers of syringes in India, only two of them — Iscon and HMD — manufacture auto disable syringes which cannot be reused. However, both players are confident of handling the anticipated surge, if orders are placed on time.

There are several types of syringe requirements depending on a country’s requirement.

For instance, syringes with needle stick prevention features (caps on the needles) are produced for North American and European countries where healthcare workers are prevented from accidental injuries.

Auto disable syringes are required for South Asia, including India and China, and Africa and Central America where injection’s reuse is prevalent leading to diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. These syringes have plunger locking and in some cases breaking mechanism to prevent reuse.

Standard disposable syringes are used in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Southeast and Far East Asia. These are conventional syringes like Dispovan.

‘Govt should provide clarity now’

According to Iscon and HMD officials, the industry needs early intimation for boosting the capacities further.

“Syringe production is not like production of PPE kits which can be easily ramped up. It requires precision and automation. Our equipment is imported from Europe, Japan and other countries and requires placing orders nine months in advance,” Nath said.

“The industry will only place such expensive orders when the Government of India will make contractual arrangements with us,” he said.

The average price of a syringe is below Rs 2, currently. “We will supply all syringes at a reasonable price, only adding the annual inflation of 3 per cent. Roughly, the price will be a little above Rs 2 per unit.”

Syringe makers believe the government’s warehouses are already choked with a backlog of syringes which were purchased to conduct annual, regular immunisation drives. There is no storage available to keep the new units, claimed the industry.

“The Centre buys around 30 crore to 350 crore auto-disable syringes every year for conducting immunisation drives across the country for children and pregnant ladies,” Nath said.

“This year, the usual immunisation drive has been suspended and delayed due to Covid and the government has possibly been able to use just 50-60 per cent of the total available syringe capacity. All the stock is lying with them leading to warehousing constraints for the additional units,” he added.