HMD completes order of 140 mn KOJAK AD Syringes for global COVID-19 vaccination campaigns

Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) has shipped the last shipment of 35 million pieces of KOJAK Auto Disable Syringes to Covax stockpile facility via UNICEF to complete the 140 million KOJAK AD Syringes order for 2020 stockpiled AD Syringes for global Covid vaccination campaigns.

“Yesterday, December 29, 2020, was our last of the 35 million pieces shipment to COVAX facility via UNICEF to complete our 140 million pieces orders for 2020 stockpiled AD Syringes for global COVID vaccination campaigns. HMD, as committed, delivered a total of 140 million in 5 months’ time to the Covax facility working for global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Rajiv Nath, MD of Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices.

“Similarly on Monday, December 28, 2020, we got inspected the last batch of the 83.5 million pieces order that we got from Government of India for 0.5 ml AD Kojak Syringes for vaccination including for COVID-19 as scheduled and committed and today on December 30, 2020, we plan to ship the last of 60.03 million pieces for which we have received the laboratory test results of the 83.5 million pieces PO in anticipation of the vaccination roll out in India in January,” stated Nath.

“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 p.a. currently which we plan to increase to 800 million pcs per annum in the 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 Government enters into a supply long term contract we can plan to produce more,” said Nath.

According to Nath, the estimated 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.

“HMD is currently producing approximately one lakh pieces of 0.5 ml Kojak AD syringes per hour, 24 hours a day – it’s going to be a challenge to vaccinate over 1.5-2 lakh people every hour in eight working hours daily. 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, “informed the company through a release.

HMD is one of the leading suppliers of AD Syringes to UNICEF and one of the largest manufacturers in India of Auto Disable Syringes.