It was 07:30 on Christmas Eve when Cha Jung-hoon, the Deputy Minister of Small Business in South Korea, received a call from his boss to make an urgent three-hour car journey to visit the spray manufacturer Poonglim Pharmatech.
The assignment: find out how the government could convince Poonglim, which had only about 80 employees, and help to quickly scale up the production of their low-space syringes (LDS), a type of syringe designed to reduce the amount of drug which is in the device after injection.
“It can help us get more vaccines,” said Cha, then-Minister Park Young-sun.
The South Korean government has put the local media under fire for not doing enough to secure COVID-19 vaccines, and is exploring options to speed up shipments and get more supplies. The conclusion was to take advantage of a jump in LDS spray outputs.
The niche products were suddenly in great demand worldwide after it was found that they could be used to deliver a sixth dose from the vials of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE)’s newly approved COVID-19 vaccine press, compared to five doses with a standard syringe.
“It has come to our attention that Pfizer was looking for LDS syringes … the use of LDS syringes increases the volume of the vaccine by 20%,” Park told Reuters.
Of South Korea’s LDS spray manufacturers, Poonglim was singled out for special attention.
According to South Korean health professionals, the products are the easiest of household models to comfortably take six doses from a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination scale and often seven with an experienced hand. Poonglim also had its own patents.
A strategy was followed to use Poonglim’s syringes, to increase production and thus help Pfizer increase the supply of what just a few weeks earlier had become the first COVID-19 shot approved in Britain and the United States is.
LDS syringes can also mean more profits for drug manufacturers, as most contracts are based on an approved number of doses to be withdrawn from each vial.
In the weeks that followed, government officials brought in the expertise of the country’s largest conglomerate, Samsung, to help restore production lines, facilitate talks with Pfizer and guide Poonglim through regulatory procedures, said Cho Mi-heui, vice chairman of Poonglim. , said in an interview with Reuters. The Ministry of Small Business also helped arrange loans for Poonglim.
This was not the first time that South Korea has moved decisively in the fight against the coronavirus. Early in the pandemic, the country received praise for aggressive detection and contact detection.
The government was also confident in its strategy of recruiting large enterprises to achieve rapid results for small enterprises, using similar tactics to promote the production of face masks and test kits.
LDS syringes have helped Pfizer in some countries obtain regulatory approval to re-administer its six-dose vials.
The new label, coupled with the expansion and improvement of production and the addition of more suppliers and contract manufacturers, enabled Pfizer in January to increase its forecast for vaccine doses it could deliver globally in 2021 from 1.3 billion to 2 billion. More recently, it has raised the forecast to nearly 2.5 billion.
Pfizer said in a statement to Reuters that it was able to accelerate shipments to South Korea and more than thirty other countries in the first quarter due to these improvements.
Seoul announced in late February that the shipment of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine – of which 26 million doses had been ordered directly from Pfizer – would begin arriving in March, six months earlier than originally planned.
WEN-WEN
Cha, the deputy minister for small businesses, said Poonglim sent samples to Pfizer on January 2 and the U.S. company returned a week later with positive feedback. All in all, it took less than two months from the day he was told by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to travel to Poonglim to clean up for Poonglim syringes.
Pfizer said it has no commercial agreement with Poonglim, and declined to comment on any interaction with the spray manufacturer.
In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in’s swift action against LDS syringes is being touted as a major success story of the pandemic.
Poonglim’s annual production capacity has increased more than seven times to 360 million in less than four months, and according to the Ministry of Small Business, the firm has become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of LDS syringes.
The South Korean firm also now has an informal relationship with Pfizer under which the U.S. drugmaker introduces potential customers, enabling Poonglim to approach them and work out transactions, according to Cho.
Poonglim signed an agreement 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 did not want to elaborate further.
Poonglim’s product is also among LDS syringes compiled in a health care information package compiled by BioNTech. Other products on the list include LDS syringes manufactured by major manufacturers such as Becton Dickinson (BDX.N) and B. Braun.
BioNTech said that its list of LDS syringes was compiled for informational purposes, and neither she nor Pfizer stood for their quality or gave a guarantee.
While South Korea’s vaccination process is slower than campaigns in Britain or the United States due to access to vaccines, the relative abundance of LDS injections has helped it kill 1.77 million people or 3.4% of its population at least one dose of coronavirus. vaccine. .
In comparison, Japan managed vaccinations for 1.39 million, or 1.1% of its population, despite the start of its vaccination campaign nine days earlier.
Seoul also recommended this month that LDS syringes be used for all COVID-19 vaccines, not just the Pfizer shot.
SAMSUNG SE BRUIN
Poonglim was initially reluctant to work with the government and Samsung when they offered help, and feared the technology giant would steal its own technology, according to Poonglim’s Cho.
But the conglomerate performed miracles, she said.
Samsung Bioepis, Samsung’s drug research arm, introduced Pfizer and helped Poonglim navigate the process of obtaining US FDA approval.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) helped Poonglim adjust the design of the syringe which not only made it easier to produce mass but also reduced the amount of wasted vaccine and used it more safely. It also helped recharge Poonglim’s mounting straps, which increase automation to increase output capacity, she added.
Samsung Bioepis referred Reuters’ inquiries to Samsung Electronics, which declined to comment.
Production capacity has increased – from about 4 million LDS sprayers per month in December to 10 million by February and then recently with the construction of a new plant to 30 million per month.
The number of employees also increased to about 400 people.
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