Japan and President Wen visited a special syringe company to purchase 80 million units

Input 2021.02.18 22:51

It is reported that the Japanese also made a large purchase request to Poonglim Pharmatech, a company that produces special syringes for vaccination against the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), which President Moon Jae-in visited on the 18th.

Poonglim Pharmatech said there were about 80 million purchase requests from Japan, the Kyodo News Agency reported on the news of President Moon’s visit to the company.

Japan began vaccinating the corona19 vaccine developed by Pfizer, an American pharmaceutical company, for medical workers on the 17th, but it was delayed to secure special syringes that are causing scarcity worldwide.

With the general syringe secured by the Japanese government in large quantities, only 5 vaccinations are possible per bottle, but 6 vaccinations are possible with a special syringe with a small amount of vaccine remaining at the end of the syringe.

Japan has signed a contract with Pfizer to supply 72 million vaccines (144 million doses) on a per bottle basis. Failure to obtain a special syringe will reduce the number of Pfizer vaccinations.

Poonglim Pharmatech is reported to have received requests to purchase more than 260 million syringes from 20 countries around the world. The company plans to increase its monthly production from 10 million units to 20 million units starting next month.

In Japan, Nipro, a medical device manufacturer, plans to multiply the production of special syringes at a plant in Thailand from 500,000 per month, but the supply of incremental products is expected to come about in September, Kyodo News said. In addition, uncertainties in the Pfizer vaccine acquisition schedule are also being pointed out.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, the first amount of Pfizer vaccine that arrived in Japan on the 14th was 64,350 bottles, about 320,000 doses based on five doses per bottle. It is sufficient for inoculation of 40,000 medical workers subject to prior vaccination, but insufficient for inoculation of about 3.7 million medical workers starting from the middle of next month.

Taro Kono, who is in charge of Vaccination for Corona 19, said the second Pfizer vaccine shipment would arrive in Japan next week, but did not disclose the specific quantity. Japan must import Pfizer vaccines from the European Union for the time being, and it must obtain approval per case according to the EU-introduced vaccine export management plan.

Asahi pointed out that due to uncertainties in obtaining a Pfizer vaccine, the Japanese government has not provided sufficient information while urging local governments to prepare for vaccination.