How South Korea caused the production of special turbocharged syringes for COVID-19 vaccines

It was 7:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve when Cha Jung-hoon, South Korea’s deputy small business minister, received a call from his boss asking for an urgent three-hour drive to visit the spray manufacturer Poonglim Pharmatech.

The brief: Find out how the government could convince and help Poonglim, which had only about 80 employees, minimize the production of their Low Dead Space (LDS) syringes. the device after injection.

“It could help us get more vaccines,” Cha remembers then-minister Park Young-sun who told him.

Under fire in the local media for not doing enough to secure COVID-19 vaccines, the South Korea government had revised options to speed up shipments and get more supply. Constructing a jump in LDS syringe output was an opportunity that needed to be seized, it concluded.

The niche products were suddenly in huge demand worldwide after it became clear that they could be used to extract a sixth dose from the vials of Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE) recently approved COVID-19 vaccine. to squeeze compared to five doses with a standard syringe.

“It had come to our attention that Pfizer was looking for LDS syringes … using LDS syringes automatically increases vaccine volume by 20%,” Park told Reuters.

Poonglim received special attention from South Korean LDS spray manufacturers.

The products are the easiest household models according to South Korean health professionals, taking six doses from a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine vial with ease and often seven by an experienced hand. Poonglim also had its own patents.

For example, a strategy was carried to promote Poonglim’s syringes, ramp up production, and thus help Pfizer increase the supply of what had become the first COVID-19 shot just weeks earlier in Britain and the United States. States was approved.

LDS syringes can also be more profitable for drug manufacturers as most contracts are based on a legally approved number of doses to be taken from each vial.

In the weeks that followed, government officials brought in the expertise of Samsung, the country’s largest conglomerate, to help restore production lines, facilitate talks with Pfizer and lead Poonglim through regulatory processes, Poonglim’s vice president Cho Mi-heui told Reuters. an interview. The Small Business Ministry also helped arrange loans for Poonglim.

It was not the first time that South Korea had taken decisive action in the fight against the corona virus. Early in the pandemic, the country had received praise for aggressive tracking and contact tracing.

The government was also confident in its strategy of recruiting large companies to deliver quick results for small businesses, using similar tactics to boost the production of face masks and test kits.

LDS syringes have helped Pfizer gain legal approval in some countries to relabel its vials with six doses.

That new label, coupled with an expansion and improvement in manufacturing and the addition of more suppliers and contract manufacturers, enabled Pfizer to increase its projection for vaccine doses it can deliver globally by 2021 from 1.3 billion to 2 in January. billion. More recently, it raised that forecast to nearly 2.5 billion.

Pfizer said in a statement to Reuters that these improvements had enabled it to accelerate shipments to South Korea and more than 30 other countries in the first quarter.

Seoul announced in late February that shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – of which it had ordered 26 million doses directly from Pfizer – would begin arriving in March, six months ahead of schedule.

Win win

Cha, the deputy secretary for small business, said Poonglim sent samples to Pfizer on Jan. 2 and the American company returned with positive feedback a week later. All in all, it took less than two months from the day he was told to travel to Poonglim to pick up Poonglim’s syringes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Pfizer said it has no commercial agreement with Poonglim and declined to comment on any interactions with the sprayer manufacturer.

In South Korea, the government’s rapid response to LDS syringes is being touted by President Moon Jae-in as a major pandemic success story.

Poonglim’s annual production capacity has grown more than seven times to 360 million in less than four months, and the company has become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of LDS syringes, according to the Ministry of Small Business.

The South Korean company now also has an informal relationship with Pfizer, with the US drug maker introducing potential customers, allowing Poonglim to approach them and work out deals, Cho said.

Poonglim signed a deal this month to supply Japan with 30 million syringes over the next six months, she added. Japanese government agencies overseeing the COVID-19 response declined to comment on their procurement policies.

Cho also said Poonglim is in talks with customers in Europe and the United States about supplying LDS syringes, but declined to elaborate.

Poonglim’s product is also one of the LDS syringes in a healthcare professional information pack prepared by BioNTech. Other products on the list include LDS syringes made by major manufacturers such as Becton Dickinson (BDX.N) and B. Braun.

BioNTech said the LDS syringe list has been compiled for informational purposes and neither they nor Pfizer vouch for their quality or provide a warranty.

While South Korea’s vaccination drive has been slower than campaigns in Britain or the United States due to access to vaccines, the relative abundance of LDS syringes has helped it reach 1.77 million people or 3.4% of the population. give at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. .

In comparison, Japan vaccinated 1.39 million people, or 1.1% of the population, despite the vaccination campaign having started nine days earlier.

Seoul also recommended using LDS syringes for all COVID-19 vaccines this month, not just the Pfizer injection.

SAMSUNG’S BROKEN

Poonglim was initially reluctant to work with the government and Samsung when they offered help, worried the tech giant might steal proprietary technology, said Cho van Poonglim.

But the conglomerate had worked wonders, she said.

Samsung Bioepis, Samsung’s research arm, has introduced Pfizer and helped Poonglim go through the process of getting US FDA approval.

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) helped Poonglim customize the syringe design, making it not only easier to mass-produce, but also reduce the amount of wasted vaccine and make it safer to use. It also helped redesign Poonglim’s assembly lines, increasing automation to increase output capacity, she added.

Samsung Bioepis referred Reuters inquiries to Samsung Electronics, which declined to comment.

Production capacity increased – from approximately 4 million LDS syringes per month in December to 10 million in February and more recently with the construction of a new plant to 30 million per month.

The workforce has also increased to about 400 people.

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Principles of Trust.

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