Establishing a system to increase production of syringes that can inoculate Pfizer vaccine 6 times in a hurry

Regarding the new coronavirus vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, it became clear that the 6 inoculations that were supposed in one container can only be inoculated 5 times with the prepared syringe, and it became clear that a major medical device in Osaka Manufacturers are rushing to improve the system to increase the production of special syringes that can be inoculated six times.

According to Nipro, a major medical device manufacturer headquartered in Kita-ku, Osaka, the government requested that the production of special syringes that can be inoculated six times be increased at the end of last month.

Nipro used to produce special syringes for vaccination with another vaccine, but upon request, at a rapid pace to increase production from about 500,000 to millions in a month. It means that we are considering it.

Production will take place at a factory in Thailand, and it is expected that it will take four to five months before a system for increasing production can be put in place and supplied.

Kyoetsu Kobayashi, Managing Director of Nipro, said, "I have never experienced a rapid increase in demand so far. I think that vaccines will be a big step toward the convergence of the new corona, so as a medical device manufacturer, we will do everything we can at a rapid pace. I want to proceed with it. "

A special syringe that minimizes waste

We asked the person in charge of Nipro, a major medical device manufacturer headquartered in Kita-ku, Osaka, about the difference between general syringes and special syringes.

The difference between the syringes that are generally distributed in Japan and the special syringes is the shape of the tip of the syringe.

Special syringes have a protruding shape.

When you put orange juice in a syringe and check the difference in structure, in the special syringe, the protruding rubber part pushes out the liquid, so there is almost no liquid left at the tip.

On the other hand, with a general syringe, even if the liquid is pushed out, a small amount remains at the tip.

For this reason, if the vaccine is sucked out with a general syringe, the amount required for one vaccination will not remain in the container for the sixth time.

A special syringe is meant to help minimize this waste and efficiently inoculate a limited number of vaccines.