BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) has received pandemic orders for needles and syringes totalling 2 billion injection devices to support global COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
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This new milestone reflects commitments to governments across the world, including the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain and the UK, among many others, as well as non-governmental organisations supporting vaccine deployment for developing countries.
In total, BD is supporting pandemic orders for more than 40 countries, non-governmental organisations and other partners.
BD has delivered more than 900 million injection devices around the world to date, with the remaining orders to be delivered between now and the end of 2022 to support vaccine administration.
These devices are being shipped to governments or appointed distribution partners where they will then be distributed to healthcare facilities based on each country's individual distribution and allocation strategy.
BD says it continues to be in discussions with government agencies and non-governmental organisations on the need to plan ahead to ensure supply availability and place orders for delivery in late 2022 and into the future.
As part of its efforts, BD continues to closely plan supply capabilities to help ensure maximum volumes can be dedicated to COVID-19 efforts, while minimising disruption for routine healthcare, annual flu vaccinations and childhood immunisation programs.
BD has also announced multiple capital investments to expand capacity for vaccination injection devices for COVID-19 and future pandemics. These include
- Partnering with the US government on a $70 million capital project to further expand BD's operations and manufacturing capacity in Nebraska. Once it is completed this summer, the federal government will have priority access to hundreds of millions of injection devices to support vaccination efforts for COVID-19 and future pandemics.
- Adding new manufacturing lines for injection devices in the company's Fraga, Spain manufacturing facility. When these lines ramp up now through 2022 it will increase output of these devices by nearly 500 million per year to support COVID-19 and other efforts, mainly for markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as for non-governmental organizations.
- Investing $1.2 billion over 4 years to expand and upgrade BD's manufacturing capacity and technology for pre-fillable syringes and advanced drug delivery systems to allow for continued growth of new injectable drugs and vaccines. This will also provide surge capacity for increased pre-fillable syringe demand during times of pandemic response.