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Extract six doses from a vial of Pfizer vaccine? The Cautious Syringe Giant

2021-01-25T23:40:30.523Z


The American group Becton Dickinson, the largest producer of syringes in the world, said Monday, January 25 that the production of syringes necessary for the extraction of six doses - instead of five - from a vial of vaccine against the Covid-19 of Pfizer-BioNtech remained “limited” for the time being . Read also: Sixth dose of Pfizer vaccine: how the good news became a trap The vial initially o


The American group Becton Dickinson, the largest producer of syringes in the world, said Monday, January 25 that the production of syringes necessary for the extraction of six doses - instead of five - from a vial of vaccine against the Covid-19 of Pfizer-BioNtech remained

“limited”

for the time being

.

Read also: Sixth dose of Pfizer vaccine: how the good news became a trap

The vial initially officially contained five doses, but caregivers quickly realized that they could sometimes get at least a sixth dose, or even a seventh.

One way to speed up vaccination.

Drug agencies in Europe and the United States confirmed in early January that the vials could well contain six doses.

But to take a sixth dose, you normally need a specific syringe, with a dead space, the volume that remains in the syringe once its plunger is fully depressed, very small.

But these are

"niche products"

and the demand for these syringes

"is traditionally minimal,"

said in a message to AFP a spokesperson for Becton Dickinson, Troy Kirkpatrick.

"For this reason, these products have a limited production capacity and it would take time"

to increase it, he added.

When presenting its plan to fight the pandemic last week, the new US government highlighted the potential shortage of several medical products, including syringes with low dead space.

To combat this situation, Joe Biden invoked a law authorizing the authorities to force private companies to produce certain goods in an emergency, the Defense Production Act.

The American president again showed his confidence in the deployment of vaccines on Monday, believing that the United States would come closer to collective immunity to Covid-19 by the summer.

Read also: Vaccination: why the 6th dose of Pfizer bottles is not (yet) used in France

In this context, Becton Dickinson

"is proactively collaborating with the US government to discuss capabilities on low dead space syringes as well as its pre-filled syringe solutions that could optimize"

vaccine use, said Troy Kirkpatrick.

"When we started planning with the US government for injection device requirements in spring 2020, the focus was not on low-dead space syringes, and priority was given to other devices."

, he recalled.

The company has pledged to produce a total of more than a billion syringes for vaccination against Covid-19, including 286 million in the United States.

It had already delivered 150 million in late 2020 in the country and plans to distribute the rest by March.

Source: lefigaro

All tech articles on 2021-01-25

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