In order to vaccinate 642.5 million people, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd (HMD), one of the leading manufacturers of disposable syringes in the world has supplied 471.35 million pieces to the government by September end.
To ensure there is no shortage of syringes, HMD has preponed the supply commitments to the union health ministry and against 442.5 million pieces committed by September, 2021, HMD has already supplied 471.35 million pieces. An additional 13 million pieces are also on the way.
Government of India has entrusted HMD with a new order of 132.5 million pieces and HMD has further diverted the supply of 100 million pieces from UNICEF order to Government of India from September to December, 2021. Spike in demand for non-covid healthcare has also posed challenges for vaccination syringes.
“In our utmost endeavour to make India Covid syringe surplus, in August HMD has achieved production capacity of over 1 billion auto-disable (AD) syringes for Covid vaccination per year, helping make India Atmanirbhar in syringe manufacturing. Presently HMD is producing more than 4.2 lakh syringes of various types per hour at our factories spread over 11 acres in Faridabad industrial district in Haryana,” stated,” informed Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd.
“In line with PM Modi’s plans to resume export of surplus COVID-19 vaccines in the fourth quarter of 2021 in order to fulfill the commitment of India towards COVAX, we at HMD are confident that India will also be in a position to export Covid vaccine syringes as part of ‘Vaccine Maitri’ to fulfill India’s commitment towards the world for the collective fight against COVID-19,” Nath added.
Nath further stated that HMD is in a position and well equipped to export non-covid syringes mainly for children for Yellow Fever or Measles, Hepatitis B, Pentavalent or BCG etc. This is India’s and HMD’s ongoing global contractual commitments to support global immunization projects. However, HMD’s top priority right now is to ensure there is no syringe shortage in India to help the Govt. to combat the pandemic.
To help in vaccinating India against Covid, HMD has reserved maximum capacity for India. HMD presently is not accepting any export orders from many overseas potential buyers.
“HMD had been ensuring continuity of supply chain and its manufacturing plants in its sincere quest to ensure India faces no shortages for its critically needed disposable syringes for covid vaccination. HMD extends full cooperation and support to Government of India and will do whatever it needs to produce syringes ahead of schedule to ensure success of India’s massive vaccination campaign,”Nath concluded
