It was at 7.30am on Christmas Eve when Cha Jung-hoon, South Korea’s deputy minister of small businesses, received a call from his boss to make an urgent three-hour drive to visit the manufacturer. of syringes Poonglim Pharmatech.
The summary: find out how the government could convince and help Poonglim, which had only about 80 employees, to quickly increase the production of its low-dead syringes (LDS), a type of syringe designed to minimize the amount of medicine which remains the device after injection.
“It could help us get more vaccines,” recalls Cha, who told Park Young-sun, then a minister.
Under fire from local media for not doing enough to secure vaccines against COVID-19, the South Korean government had been reviewing options to speed up shipments and get more supply. He concluded that he took the opportunity to make a leap in the production of LDS syringes.
Niche products suddenly had high global demand after it became clear that they could be used to extract a sixth dose of vials from Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (22UAy. DE) recently approved compared to five doses. with a standard syringe.
“It had struck us that Pfizer was looking for LDS syringes … the use of LDS syringes automatically increases the volume of vaccines by 20%,” Park told Reuters.
Of South Korea’s LDS syringe manufacturers, Poonglim was distinguished by special attention.
According to health workers in South Korea, their products are the easiest-to-use domestic models, comfortably taking six doses from a bottle of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and often seven with an experienced hand. Poonglim also had its own patents.
In this way a strategy was carried out to promote Poonglim syringes, increase production and thereby help Pfizer increase the supply of what had become weeks before the first COVID-19 feature that was approved in Britain and the United States.
LDS syringes can also mean more benefits for drug manufacturers, as most contracts are based on a regulatory-approved dose number that is extracted from each vial.
In the following weeks, government officials brought the experience of the country’s largest conglomerate, Samsung, to help reform production lines, facilitate talks with Pfizer and guide Poonglim through regulatory procedures, the vice president told Reuters of Poonglim, Cho Mi-heui, in an interview. The small business ministry also helped arrange loans for Poonglim.
It was not the first time South Korea had moved decisively in its fight against coronavirus. At the beginning of the pandemic, the country had won applause for aggressive monitoring and follow-up contacts.
The government was also confident in its strategy of recruiting large firms to achieve quick results for small firms, as it had used similar tactics to increase the production of face masks and test kits.
LDS syringes have helped Pfizer obtain regulatory permits in some countries to re-label its vials as six-dose.
This new label, along with expanding and improving production and adding more contract suppliers and manufacturers, allowed Pfizer in January to increase its vaccine dose projection it can provide globally by 2021, from 1.3 billion to 2 billion. More recently, it raised that forecast to about $ 2.5 billion.
Pfizer said in a statement to Reuters that it had been able to speed up shipments in the first quarter to South Korea and more than 30 other countries due to these improvements.
Seoul announced in late February that shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – from which it had ordered 26 million doses directly to Pfizer – would begin arriving in March, six months ahead of schedule for the first time.
Win-win
Cha, deputy minister of small businesses, said Poonglim sent samples to Pfizer on Jan. 2 and the U.S. company returned a week later with positive comments. It all took less than two months from the day the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told him he had to travel to Poonglim to ask for Poonglim’s syringes.
Pfizer said it has no trade agreement with Poonglim and declined to comment on any interaction with the syringe maker.
In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in promotes the government’s swift action on LDS syringes as a major pandemic success story.
Poonglim’s annual production capacity has more than seven times increased in less than four months to 360 million and the company has become, according to the small business ministry, one of the world’s largest LDS syringe manufacturers.
The South Korean firm also maintains an informal relationship with Pfizer under which the US drug maker presents potential customers, allowing Poonglim to approach them and make deals, according to Cho.
Poonglim signed an agreement this month to provide Japan with 30 million syringes over the next six months, he added. Japanese government agencies overseeing COVID-19’s response declined to comment on its procurement policies.
Cho also said Poonglim is in talks with customers in Europe and the United States about supplying LDS syringes, but declined to delve into them.
The Poonglim product is also among the LDS syringes listed in an information pack for healthcare professionals prepared 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 its list of LDS syringes was compiled for informational purposes and neither he nor Pfizer confirmed its quality or provided any warranty.
While South Korea’s eagerness to vaccinate continues more slowly than campaigns in Britain or the United States due to access to vaccines, its relative abundance of LDS syringes has helped it give 1 , 77 million people or 3.4% of its population at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.
In comparison, Japan has managed vaccinations for 1.39 million, or 1.1% of its population, despite starting its inoculation 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’S BRAWN
Poonglim was initially reluctant to work with the government and Samsung when they offered help, worrying that the tech giant could steal proprietary technology, according to Poonglim’s Cho.
But the conglomerate had done wonders, he said.
Samsung Bioepis, Samsung’s drug research group, made presentations at Pfizer and helped Poonglim navigate the process to obtain U.S. FDA approval.
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) helped Poonglim adjust the syringe design which not only made mass production easier, but also reduced the amount of wasted vaccine and made it safer to use. It also helped re-equip Poonglim’s assembly lines, increasing automation to raise output capacity, he added.
Samsung Bioepis forwarded Reuters inquiries to Samsung Electronics, which declined to comment.
Production capacity increased: from about 4 million LDS syringes a month in December to 10 million in February and, more recently, with the construction of a new plant to 30 million a month.
The workforce has also increased to about 400 people.
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