December 16, 2020 – BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (Franklin Lakes, NJ) announced it has received pandemic orders for needles and syringes totaling more than 1 billion injection devices to support global COVID-19 vaccination planning efforts.
This milestone reflects commitments from governments across the world, including the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the United Kingdom, among several others, as well as non-governmental organizations supporting vaccine deployment for developing countries.
The company says shipments are already underway and more than 300 million injection devices have been delivered around the world, with the remaining orders to be delivered between now and the end of 2021.
The 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 continues to be in discussions with governments and non-governmental organizations on the need to place orders immediately for delivery later in calendar year 2021 and 2022.
In addition to supporting immediate efforts for COVID-19 vaccination readiness, BD is also working on multiple fronts to help ensure the global community is prepared for future pandemic vaccination efforts by:
- Partnering with the U.S. government on a $70 million capital project to further expand BD’s operations and manufacturing capacity in Nebraska. The new capacity is expected to be online in summer 2021 and once completed, the federal government will have priority access to hundreds of millions of injection devices to support vaccination efforts for COVID-19 and future pandemics.
- Investing approximately $1.2 billion over a 4-year period to expand and upgrade manufacturing capacity and technology for pre-fillable syringes and advanced drug delivery systems to allow for continued growth of new injectable drugs and vaccines, but also provide surge capacity for increased pre-fillable syringe demand during times of pandemic response.
- Actively engaging with med-tech associations and research groups to address challenges, solutions and further innovation in support of a more sustainable future vaccine ecosystem.