TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Terumo Corp said on Tuesday that it had developed a new syringe that could draw seven doses from each vial of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer Inc, at least one more than the existing syringes.
The health ministry approved the project on Friday, and Terumo will begin production in late March, a Terumo spokesman told Reuters. Kyodo News, which first reported on the development, said Terumo plans to manufacture 20 million units this year.
The vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, is shipped in bottles initially indicated to contain five doses. Six doses can be withdrawn with special syringes, called low dead space, which minimize the amount of vaccine left in the syringe after use.
Japan started its COVID-19 inoculation campaign last month, using the Pfizer vaccine. Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the effort, said on Friday that some injections could go to waste amid a lack of special syringes.
Reporting by Noriyuki Hirata and Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Lincoln Feast edition.