HMD supplied 1.75 billion syringes for Covid-19 vaccination globally

New Delhi: Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) says it has achieved a major milestone of supplying 1.75 billion syringes of the total 13.3 billion Covid-19 vaccines administered globally in April 2023.

As per company, the feat means that over 13% of covid shots administered worldwide were using Kojak Selinge AD Syringes of HMD. Nearly 1 covid vaccine in every 7-8 people worldwide was administered using HMD’s syringe.

In their endeavor to ensure there is no shortage of syringes to help vaccinate India against Covid, HMD had supplied over 921.7 million syringes from Dec 2020 till April 2023 to the government to help vaccinate over 1 billion people till date using more than 2 billion syringes to support the massive vaccination campaign to eradicate Covid-19 and help make India Aatmanirbhar.

Pardeep Sareen, Vice President for marketing at HMD said “Total Government orders HMD received till date from Dec 2020 are of more than 900 million pcs of 0.5 ml Kojak Selinge AD Syringes. In addition, HMD has been supplying various sizes of Dispo Van and Kojak Selinge AD Syringes in the private sector vaccination campaign. All orders received till date from December have been supplied on time or before time as per our commitments.”

HMD has made India proud with its global recognition as a key international supplier of critically needed syringes by supplying to COVAX facility of WHO (via UNICEF), approximately 650 million AD and Disposable syringes to UNICEF, over 150 million syringes to PAHO, both of which were later distributed to various developing nations around the world. On top of the same, over 45 million syringes were supplied as an emergency supply to Japan in 2020, mostly by air freight.

“India’s vaccination drive has been a role model for the world. To help vaccinate the world against covid, HMD’s manufacturing plants were operational 24/7. Our machines cranked out more than 4.2 lakh syringes of various types per hour at our factories spread over 11 acres in Faridabad industrial district in Haryana. HMD initially had capacity to produce over 250 Crore assorted syringes of various types and sizes per year & we invested over ₹100 Crore from our own resources, without government financial support to scale this over 350 crores more syringes including expanding our vertical line of needle and capillary tubing capacities in our sincere quest for ensuring no syringe shortages,” said Rajiv Nath, Managing Director of Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices.

“But now we had to reduce our production of syringes drastically as covid vaccination rates dipped to negligible levels in the last quarter. Production of AD immunization syringes at our plant has fallen from 45-50 lacs units per day a year ago to 5-6 lakhs now. We are repurposing our machines to produce Smart Kojak needlestick prevention syringes for curative healthcare drug delivery and are looking to penetrate overseas markets which have higher standards for injection safety than India currently for both patients as well as healthcare workers,” added Nath.

“We feel humbled & honored to contribute to the International Vaccination Campaign along with extending our help to eradicate the covid pandemic globally. The prestigious vaccine bullets needed our humble guns. It was a huge responsibility, and we are glad we could shoulder the responsibilities with the Government”, said Sohail Nath.