India’s top syringe maker asks PM Modi to lift factory shutdown order

Mumbai: India’s largest syringe and needle manufacturer has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke an order to suspend production, part of a broader factory shutdown imposed by a state regulator to curb heavy pollution in the region.

Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD) has shuttered its factories on the outskirts of New Delhi following the directive from a state pollution control board, triggering concerns of an acute shortage of syringes and needles in India just as its COVID-19 vaccination programme is in full swing.

“The closure of needles and syringes manufacturing factories will create disruption in the supply chain,” said Rajiv Nath, managing director of HMD, in a letter to Modi’s office which was released to media.

“This may impact healthcare delivery across the country in general and the COVID-19 vaccination programme in particular, resulting in major shortage and other related issues,” Nath said, adding that authorities must permit factories to operate under the National Disaster Management Act.

The directive was issued to more than 228 factories in the region by the Haryana Pollution Control Board as part of a drive to combat pollution and improve air quality.

HMD, which provides more than 60% of the needles and syringes which India needs for curative healthcare and immunisation, said it will take adequate measures to ensure its factories are not polluting the region.

“We assure the government that we will not use our diesel generator sets and have fully equipped our plants with renewable energy sources,” said Nath, adding that syringe supplies were already running short in India and in global markets.

“At this location, HMD daily produces 1.5 crore needles and 80 lakh syringes. This has come to a halt now. As we can’t feed needles beyond two days buffer stock from Monday, other factories fed by the mother unit will be shut and daily 1.2 crore syringes will not be available nationally,” Nath said.

According to Nath, most of HMD’s plants run on environmentally friendly piped natural gas (PNG).

“We have captive PNG-based power generation. We do have standby Diesel Gensets but they are hardly used since we have PNG that’s far cheaper and pollution-free. We are not a polluting industry and one of our plants just got the Gold Certification for Green Building for meeting sustainability standards,” he said.

Raising his concern, Rajiv Nath, who is also the Forum Coordinator of Association of Indian Medical Devices Industry, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged that syringes manufacturing facilities should be allowed to run under National Disaster Management Act to avoid national healthcare crisis in curative healthcare as well for much needed COVID-19 vaccination programme.

In a letter to Arvind Kumar Nautiyal, Member Secretary of Commission for Air Quality Management, NCR, Nath informed that the firm is manufacturing COVID-19 critical medical devices, that is, syringes for COVID-19 vaccination and are running their operations with PNG of 4.3 megawatts since 2011.

Nath requested Arvind Kumar to withdraw the order or make an exception looking at the critical nature of running their operation for the COVID-19 vaccination in India as well as globally to avoid any big national healthcare crisis stating that over 2/3rd of the country depends upon HMD.

“Other countries are also counting on India to support global immunization/vaccination projects mainly for children,” he wrote in his letter.

“Syringes are already running short in India and globally and the government has also put in export restrictions. Our expectation was that the export restriction will be lifted by December end as peak demand ebbed post-Diwali but orders like this will make the situation much worse” he noted.

“We definitely understand and appreciate the concerns of the government and we fully support the anti-pollution drive. We assure the government that we will not use our Diesel generator sets and have fully equipped our plants with renewable energy sources like PNG, solar power energy and direct power access feeders. We are with the government in every step to help combat the pollution level and encourage sustainability in our daily lifestyle,” Nath added.

Appealing to the government to come out with a way to avert a possible crisis, Nath said, “On behalf of Indian syringe manufacturers and other critical care Medical Device makers, I appeal to the government to amend the applicability of order and help us to save the nation from a bigger looming healthcare crisis which will arise with the closure of the syringe manufacturing factories and for other critical care.”

Air quality in India’s capital and its neighbouring region remains very poor, forcing the government to take emergency measures.

Schools and colleges were also ordered to shut as the government intensified various dust-control steps such as using fire trucks to spray water.