TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Japan is struggling to get special syringes to maximize the number of COVID-19 vaccines used in each vial, but manufacturers are struggling to increase production quickly, raising fears that millions of doses will be lost.
Japan, with a population of 126 million, signed a contract last month with Pfizer Inc. to purchase 144 million doses of its vaccine, or enough for 72 million people, with the vaccination campaign launched on Wednesday. .
One vial is intended for six shots, says Pfizer, but special syringes are needed that retain a low volume of solution after an injection to extract six doses, while only five shots can be taken with standard syringes that the government has stored in preparation for the inoculation unit.
“We are still trying to secure these special syringes,” Cabinet Chief Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Tuesday.
He did not answer questions directly when asked last week if scarcity meant reducing the number of shots Japan can manage.
Both a Pfizer Japan spokeswoman and a Japanese health ministry official declined to say whether the contract to supply Japan with 144 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year is based on taking six doses from each vial.
Rapid inoculation of its population is a top priority for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government, as it is set to host the Tokyo Olympics this summer after the Games were postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In order to minimize the amount of vaccine left unused in syringes and vials, the government is asking medical equipment manufacturers to increase production of syringes with little dead space, but there are doubts as to whether this can be done enough quickly.
Nipro Corp., which runs a plant in Thailand capable of manufacturing 500,000 units a month, said it planned to increase its monthly capacity to a few million, but that it would take up to five months to reach that goal.
“We are receiving a request from the Ministry of Health and we need to take some action. But it’s not something we can do overnight. It will be four or five months before we can rise sharply, ”a Nipro spokeswoman said.
Another major Japanese medical gear manufacturer, Terumo Corp., said it had begun developing syringes suitable for extracting six doses from a vial, but that it was too early to say when commercial production could begin.
Although daily cases have fallen in recent weeks in Japan after peaking in early January, Tokyo and nine other prefectures are still under the state of emergency of the coronavirus.
According to the public broadcaster NHK, there have been nearly 418,000 cases in Japan, with 7,042 deaths. (Report by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional Report by Ritsuko Ando; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore)