Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd (HMD) is enhancing production of auto-disable syringes for vaccination to an annual capacity of 1 billion in the first half of 2021 from 700 million currently as the country gets ready for the massive demand of COVID-19 vaccines. Being the world’s largest manufacturers of auto-disable syringes, HMD is also building a stockpile of around 140 million syringes by the end of the year.

“We have received orders from UNICEF to increase our supply of immunization AD syringes to the organization to around 300 million,” says Rajiv Nath, Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes. Rajiv adds, “We are waiting on the Indian government to start creating a stockpile of syringes as being done by other countries. The company can be ready with 100 million of these syringes for COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year if the government needs it”.

Currently, the company has nearly 50 million syringes in stock as standard immunization injection campaigns had been suspended at onset of the pandemic and are yet to pick up pace after resumption. So far, the focus has been on vaccine developers, especially Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, whose COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently in human trial. There are about half a dozen other companies whose vaccines are currently in the pre-clinical trial stage.

HMD can be ready with 100 million of these syringes for COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year if the government needs it

For a country of 1.3 billion population, to reach a herd immunity level of 60 percent, India would likely have to immunize 780 million people. Apart from mass manufacturing vaccines, the country is also expected to need vials and syringes for dosage, which experts have said will be a major bottleneck for immunization against the highly contagious COVID-19.

HMD was founded in 1957 and is a closely held family Corp. Its primary markets include India, USA, Europe, Middle East and secondary markets include Africa and S.E.Asia. HMD has sevent plants in different locations in S.Asia and has over 3,500 employees. Its major products are Single use Syringes, Single use Needles, I.V.Cannulas, Safety I.V.Cannulas, Surgical Blades, Scalpels, Scalpvein Sets, Glass Syringes, Nonreusable (AD) Syringes, Blood collection tubes, Blood collection needle and Blood Collection Set. All the products are marketed through an established national distribution network of more than 4,500 dealers catered by 65 stock points all over India, to ensure ready availability even in remote areas, and effective customer service support.