Syringe producers in BBN area ramp up capacity

Expect a surge in demand for Covid vaccination

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 9

Syringe manufacturers are ramping up their capacities to meet the expected overwhelming demand for their products as the government prepares to administer Covid-19 vaccine to people.

Even though it is a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub, there are not many syringe manufacturers in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area.

Nihal Health Care, Baddi, a leading syringe manufacturer of the area, has invested additional Rs 1 crore to enhance its manufacturing capacity in view of the increasing demand of syringes globally. The company specialises in disposable syringes applicable in almost all fields of therapy and has been operating since 2007.

“As against manufacturing 10 lakh syringes on a daily basis, the plant capacity is being enhanced to about 12 lakh per day to meet the overwhelming demand for syringes in view of the Covid pandemic. Machinery worth Rs 1 crore has been ordered to ramp up production and it is expected to be installed by February end or the beginning of March,” said Gurbhej Singh, company’s Managing Director.

“Syringe manufacturing is undertaken both manually as well on the auto loader basis. Our focus is to manufacture syringes of 0.5 ml and 1 ml auto disable (AD), which are likely to be used for Covid-19 vaccination,” he said.

The company also exports syringes to various nations such as the UAE and several European countries.

Manufacturers are also eying exports in view of a spurt in the global demand for vaccination. They say that syringe manufacturers could set up more plants in the BBN area if a medical devices park is sanctioned under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan of the Prime Minister. The state government has forcefully pleaded its case before the Union Government to secure one such park in Himachal.

They add that since profitability in syringe manufacturing is low not many investors prefer to invest in the sector. The manufacturers are, however, skeptical about investing more in syringe manufacturing, as they feel that the spurt in demand is a temporary phase. They cite the example of face masks and sanitisers saying the manufacturers incurred losses after a temporary spurt in demand when the pandemic peaked.