Latest News | HMD Scaling Up Production of Auto-disable Syringes to Help in COVID-19 Vaccination

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) on Tuesday said it is scaling up the production of auto-disable (AD) immunisation syringes to 1 billion units from the present annual capacity of 700 million units to help in COVID-19 vaccination.

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"We have received orders from United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to increase our supply of immunization AD syringes to the organisation to around 300 million to build up a stockpile of around 140 million syringes for COVID-19 by the end of the year," HMD Managing Director Rajiv Nath said in a statement.

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Auto-disable syringes cannot be re-used.

"Should the (Indian) government need 100 million auto-disable syringes for COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year, we can easily offer them to lift the outstanding orders placed with us," Nath said.

The company has nearly 50 million syringes in stock that the government has not lifted timely as standard immunisation injection campaigns had been suspended due to COVID-19, he added.

As India gets ready for COVID-19 vaccine, the government should be well equipped with a secured stock of syringes in advance to administer a vaccine when it is approved and ready, the medical devices maker said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)