Nation’s syringe, needle producers grapple with boom

Chinese syringe and needle companies quadruple prices for their manufactured products amid surging demand. They are sending clear warnings that their capacity is fully accounted for despite production expansions, with some orders waiting till August.

However, new orders for hundreds of millions of syringes have still been arriving in recent weeks and months, mostly from the US, against the backdrop of the country ramping up orders for vaccine and protective equipment.

While the US Food and Drug Administration gave approval for health care providers to squeeze out an extra dose of Pfizer’s COVID- 19 vaccine from many vials, the country’s supply of syringes is inadequate in terms of numbers, media reported.

Shanghai Kindly Enterprise Development Group ( KDL), a major syringe and needle supplier, has seen its orders being put on queue until August amid rising purchases from abroad, mostly from the US and UK, which are now taking about 80 percent of the company’s total exports. The company started receiving orders from the US half a year ago, but as production capacity has reached its limits, the products being made now for the US market were ordered half a year ago, a manager surnamed Wang with KDL told the Global Times on Thursday.

“Now they are continuing to place more orders, but our capacity is already full, and new orders may only be delivered after August,” said Wang.

To expand vaccine distribution, Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to funnel funds and assistance to companies that make low dead- space syringes such as Becton Dickinson ( BD), the Daily Mail reported.

However, of the 286 million needles and syringes that BD is set to deliver in the US by March, only 40 million will be low dead- space ones, the Washington Post reported, citing the company.