Minister Kwon Chil-seung Inspects Smart Factory at Vaccine Syringe Production Site

"Vaccine Syringes: The Perfect Harmony of SME Determination, Samsung Technology, and Government Support"

Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups visited the production site of Poonglim Pharmatech's Low Dead Space (LDS) vaccine syringes, which have been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to inspect the smart factory for vaccine syringes. The table compares general syringes and LDS syringes. Table = Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Kwon Chil-seung) announced on the 18th that it visited the production site of Poonglim Pharmatech's low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes, which have been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and inspected the smart factory for vaccine syringes.

Poonglim Pharmatech is a case where the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Samsung Electronics jointly established a large and small business win-win type smart factory in just one month. Through this, they completed a mass production system capable of producing more than 10 million low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes equipped with safety protection devices per month. Following this FDA approval, Poonglim Pharmatech announced that it will actively proceed with export negotiations with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and others.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups stated that Poonglim Pharmatech is currently receiving a flood of supply inquiries for low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes from pharmaceutical companies in various countries, including 180 million units in the U.S. and about 80 million units in Japan. It also explained that it plans to additionally establish a smart factory production system capable of producing more than 10 million units per month at the third factory (new factory) currently under construction, thereby creating the world's largest supply system for low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes with a monthly capacity exceeding 20 million units.

Minister Kwon held a meeting with the vaccine syringe industry following the production site inspection. At this meeting, he listened to opinions from industry representatives such as Duwon Meditech and Shina Yanghaeng regarding the production and export of low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes.

Duwon Meditech was selected by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency as a supplier of syringes for COVID-19 vaccination and will supply a total of 27.5 million units by the end of July. The company has a delivery capacity more than three times its previous production volume.

Shina Yanghaeng also plans to supply a total of 12.5 million units to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency by the first half of the year. Based on its experience exporting about 500 million low dead space (LDS) syringes to the U.S. since 1995, the company is currently discussing exports with several countries including Europe and the Middle East.

In particular, Poonglim Pharmatech announced that it will first donate 127,000 low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringes for 60,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the U.S.

At the meeting, Minister Kwon said, “Based on Poonglim Pharmatech’s achievements, we plan to actively promote the spread of smart factories specialized in the pharmaceutical and medical industries starting this year,” and “We will provide tailored and close support such as pre-consulting, certification and standard acquisition, and overseas marketing packages to ensure that these manufacturing innovation achievements lead to exports, along with online global support such as online-to-offline (O2O) linked exhibitions.”

Minister Kwon added, “Poonglim’s vaccine syringes are the crystallization of K-quarantine created by the determination and efforts of Korean SMEs, Samsung’s technology, and government support,” emphasizing, “We will strive to further spread the power of win-win cooperation.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.