Who snorts on Arcuri for the syringes of the anti Covid vaccines
For the anti Covid vaccines, Commissioner Arcuri has published a notice requesting disposable luer lock syringes: more performing and more expensive than the standard ones but not available on the Italian market, according to the company Pentaferte, one of the two Italian companies that produce syringes (l other is Artsana). A different choice from that taken in France and Germany
The first vaccines could be distributed in Italy as early as January, in record development and production times. To make them, however, we may have to wait at least another two months. The syringes are missing.
Better, the syringes requested by the Commissioner for the Covid emergency, Domenico Arcuri, are missing, based on the indications of the Cts (Technical Scientific Committee) and of the ISS (Higher Institute of Health).
In fact, the inoculation devices required in the government announcement are not the standard ones (those required by France, Germany and beyond), but the disposable luer lock ones .
Let's go step by step.
THE CALL FOR SYRINGES
Let's start from the beginning. In the press conference on November 26, the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri, announced the publication of the announcement for the request for syringes to inoculate the incoming Covid vaccine .
"We have required 150 million instruments including needles and syringes to deliver the vaccines, which will be a turning point in beating the virus," said the commissioner.
WHAT IS ASKED IN THE NOTICE?
The suppliers were requested to use disposable luer lock syringes, considered more performing by Cts, Iss and Arcuri. Compared to standard syringes, on which France, Germany and Spain are focusing, these devices have the connection between the cylinder and the needle by screwing and not by pressure.
SYRINGES NOT PRESENT ON THE MARKET
If it is true that they can be more efficient, it is also true that these syringes are not on the market. "The announcement provides for the technical characteristics of the syringes that are not available on the market," Gianluca Romagnoli, owner of Pentaferte , an Italian company leader in the production of syringes and other medical devices, told Non è l'Arena .
SYRINGES THAT COST MORE
Not available because they are "niche", explains Romagnoli. Arcuri syringes, compared to turbecolin, "commonly available in pharmacies and standard production, 1 milliliter", cost much more, explained Antonio Masseroni, manager of the Pentaferte plant in Campli, in the province of Teramo, in Tagadà . The cost "is even 5-6 times higher than that of a standard syringe".
"The" tuberculin "is sold for 8 cents, the other requested by the Arcuri staff can cost 40 cents", added Gianluca Romagnoli to the newspaper La Verità .
Numbers disputed by the Arcuri facility with a note sent to Tagadà .
LONGER PRODUCTION TIMES
The most performing syringes require an ad hoc mold and "being a non-standard product, production would start in two or three months".
CHINESE SUPPLIES?
Pentaferte, in fact, is thinking of not participating in the tender, even though “with the Artsana we are the only two Italian companies that produce syringes”, Romagnoli told La Verità. “It seemed right to be there, but no one asked me to ask for advice on the required products”.
"To make the mold, I will have to wait for February and in the meantime there are already Chinese importers who are putting low quality products on the market at a ridiculous price", added Romagnoli.
ITALY PRODUCES FOR FRANCE
And to think that Pentaferte, as early as September, started the production of vaccination syringes. It produces a couple of million a month "for the French Ministry of Health".
WE ARE LATE?
Romagnoli also has some doubts about the times. “They gave us 14 days to submit the offer, by the end of December I should already deliver millions of syringes. You can't work this way. Unfortunately it will end up that only Chinese will respond to the ban with their low-quality and low-quality products ”.
ARCURI SAYS QUIET
All this, however, does not seem to worry Arcuri. “There is nothing to do but wait for the public bid request. I have no trace of concern about this, ”said Arcuri, according to what Il Sole 24 Ore reported today .
Undoubtedly, however, December 9 will be the first and important test for what should be the largest vaccination campaign of recent times.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/artsana-pentaferte-bando-arcuri-siringhe-dei-vaccini-anti-covid/ on Fri, 04 Dec 2020 11:31:07 +0000.