Our reporter Huang Xiao, Chen Hao, Min Zuntao
The new crown vaccination at home and abroad is gradually being rolled out. According to the data released by the National Health Commission on March 24, as of March 23, a total of 82.846 million doses of vaccination have been reported nationwide.
At the same time, the market demand for consumables such as vaccine syringes and glass bottles has soared. Related companies have urgently increased their capital and expanded production. At the same time, many companies outside the industry have entered the field of vaccine consumables production.
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter's investigation found that although the current supply of some vaccine consumables and raw materials is tight, the short-term rapid expansion and rush to increase production capacity are prone to overcapacity, and the market supply and demand situation may deteriorate sharply.
Industry experts call on relevant departments to guide orderly, select truly technically capable companies to focus on "stuck necks" to tackle technical difficulties, and to reverse the long-term limitation of some raw materials and equipment.
The new crown vaccine detonates business opportunities, and related consumables companies step up to increase capital and expand production
Jiangxi Hongda Medical Device Group Co., Ltd., located in Jinxian County, Jiangxi Province, is stepping up production in its general vaccine syringe assembly workshop. The reporter saw that the semi-finished product jacket, core rod, rubber stopper, and injection needle of the syringe went through several processes. The finished syringe is assembled.
According to Wang Xiaozhen, manager of the company's production department, the company currently implements 24-hour shift production. The factory's output of 1 ml of ordinary syringes exceeds 1.2 million per day, which is mainly used for inoculation of the new crown vaccine.
As a manufacturer engaged in syringe production for a long time, Hongda currently ranks among the top in the country in terms of market share, and currently has 8 syringe production lines.
"Faced with growing domestic and international market demand, we have been actively expanding production since August last year. Since this year, our output of ordinary syringes has increased by 20%." said Wang Haiyin, general manager of Hongda Company.
"The average domestic enterprise produces more than 200,000 1ml syringes per day. Last year, our production capacity was more than 1 million syringes per day, and we adjusted quickly to meet market supply." Wang Haiyin said.
It is understood that before the outbreak, the country’s annual output of syringes was about 26 billion, of which the output of 1 ml syringes was less than 15%.
With the spread of new crown vaccination at home and abroad, the demand for products with specifications such as ordinary syringes for 1ml vaccine continues to increase.
Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province is the most concentrated area of domestic syringe production technology, molds and automation equipment.
When investigating in Zhejiang Kangkang Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., the reporter saw that a total of 2500 boxes and 2 million 1ml syringes were being loaded into the vehicle in the warehouse.
"This is a syringe commissioned by an American company." Guo Chun, general manager of the company, introduced that due to the advancement of the global vaccination plan, the company has received a number of export orders for 20-30 million syringes since December last year. The capacity of the capacity syringe is already in full production, while the order of 5 million before the epidemic was a large order.
In order to ensure that the commonly used 1ml vaccine syringes save scarce vaccines to the greatest extent, the company quickly adopted technical adjustments to effectively control the residual amount of the 1ml syringes with detachable needles below 0.035ml, which is convenient for medical staff to operate and achieves savings. The purpose of the vaccine.
Zhao Shouming, chairman of Wanbang Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Kangkang Medical Devices, said that in order to meet market demand, the construction of syringe production lines in the group’s new industrial park has been accelerated. The production capacity of ordinary syringes will increase from 20 million per month around June 2021. The branch has expanded to around 95 million.
"From the perspective of the entire industry, the current domestic syringe manufacturers have no problem ensuring domestic supply." Zhao Shouming said.
In addition to ordinary syringes, the market demand for controlled injection bottles and prefilled syringes is also rising rapidly. The person in charge of a leading vaccine glass bottle company said that the production capacity has attracted much attention. At present, the company is fully committed to boosting production capacity. All prefilled syringes are used for domestic vaccines. manufacturer.
Raw materials and equipment are in short supply, and blind expansion may cause “bad money to drive out good money”
Many leaders of vaccine-related consumable companies said that a large number of companies are currently adding production lines and increasing production capacity, and some new companies with promising future prospects have poured into the industry, but there are already many problems and contradictions that need to be paid attention to.
One is that raw materials and equipment rely on imports, which hinders the pace of expansion of enterprises.
According to the relevant person in charge of a large-scale syringe manufacturer in Shandong, the production equipment, medium borosilicate glass tube, injection needle, protective cap, rubber stopper and adhesive required for the prefilled syringe produced by the company rely on Xiangde, Mei, and Imported from France, Ireland and other countries, "Currently, the supply of raw materials and equipment is tight around the world, and foreign companies also give priority to supply to their own countries, which leads to a longer supply cycle for us and increased risks." The person in charge said.
The second is to show signs of blind expansion, with more repeated construction and fewer technical challenges.
During the epidemic, due to increased market demand, companies are expanding production.
Industry insiders mentioned that many companies are currently repeating construction. For example, the domestic production capacity of Xilin Bottle is fully sufficient to meet the current market demand, but there are still companies that continue to put into production.
Borosilicate glass tube raw material suppliers Germany Schott and Corning have built production lines in China, which has solved the problem of insufficient raw material supply to a certain extent. Many domestic companies have also built or just invested. Invest in high quality standards, benchmark the quality of imported raw materials, and settle down to study the core technology of tackling glass raw materials to consolidate ourselves, and we must not rapidly expand and increase production when the quality basis is unstable.
The third is to be wary of overcapacity "bad money drives out good money".
Interviewed industry experts said that after the global epidemic is brought under control, market demand will return to normal, and blindly adding new capacity may become excess capacity.
Wang Haiyin mentioned that because it is difficult for a general-sized enterprise to obtain a foreign license, it is impossible to think of it, and it cannot receive foreign orders. This has led to more enterprises flocking to the domestic market and intensified the competition of domestic related products.
Guo Chun said that centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and equipment is the general trend. In this context, the most direct consequence of overcapacity is that companies start a "price war" and enter the centralized procurement catalog at low prices, with good product quality and high R&D investment. On the contrary, it may be excluded, forming a phenomenon of "bad money drives out good money".
The "stuck neck" technical attack is imminent, and we are alert to repeat the "mask tragedy" in a rush
The large-scale promotion of the new crown vaccine is both an opportunity and a challenge for related consumable companies.
In the face of increasing market demand, companies have invested a lot of resources to expand production regardless of cost. However, after the market stabilizes, excess capacity will affect the healthy development of the industry, which may repeat the "tragedy" of the cliff-like decline in mask prices in the first half of 2020 and heavy losses for companies .
Many interviewees said that companies should be guided to have their own focus and orderly competition.
According to industry insiders, because the new crown vaccine has high requirements for safety and stability, vaccine companies tend to use prefilled syringes.
Before the epidemic, there was not much demand for prefilled syringes in the domestic market, but after the epidemic, BD, one of the world's major manufacturers of prefilled syringes, stopped supplying supplies to China, which led to tight supply in the Chinese market.
A number of interviewees suggested that relevant national departments should select companies with strong R&D capabilities to tackle the "stuck neck" technology.
Most foreign companies have decades or hundreds of years of development history in their respective fields, and localized substitution cannot be achieved overnight. Therefore, the country should match precisely and concentrate limited resources on the companies or institutions that have the most opportunity for breakthroughs.
It is understood that the short-term domestic prefilled syringes cannot meet the demand.
At present, leading companies such as Shandong Weigao and Ningbo Zhengli have already expanded their production, but the expansion requires a certain period of time.
In comparison, the supply of controlled vials is sufficient.
During this period, the controlled vials can be used first, and the prefilled syringes can be replaced when the supply capacity of the prefilled syringes keeps up.
At the same time, it has issued favorable policies for related enterprises in terms of approval and financing.
In order to reduce the burden of production and sub-packaging of vaccine companies, multi-person packaging can also be considered.
Zhao Shouming said that the epidemic will be an opportunity for the vaccine consumables industry to reshuffle. Companies should change their development mode of relying solely on low-level price competition to obtain the market. This should be achieved by improving quality and efficiency, reducing production costs, and managing costs. Only by operating on a large scale, establishing brand awareness and making ourselves bigger and stronger can we win the right to speak in the international market.