Why Pic and Pentaferte toss Arcuri on luer lock syringes for the anti Covid vaccine
Pic snubs Arcuri's purchase offer on luer lock syringes, while Pentaferte criticizes the choice of the most expensive device. Will we make the Covid vaccine with Chinese syringes? Facts, numbers and puffs of Italian companies on the commissioner's purchase offer on the advice of Health
Pic Solution, the Italian company acquired by Mtd, Medical Technology and Devices, did not participate in the takeover bid for the construction of luer lock syringes for anti Covid vaccines. The other Italian company that produces syringes, Pentaferte, has done so but has already warned that production times will be at least 2-3 months.
Will the choice of luer lock syringes, made by the Ministry of Health with the announcement published on November 26 by Commissioner Domenico Arcuri, bring us foreign supplies to start with the vaccination campaign in January?
Here are facts, numbers and controversies.
PIC DOES NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE CALL
Pic, the Italian company that produced the first disposable syringe in 1982 , did not participate in the purchase offer for the supply of luer lock syringes for the inoculation of the Covid-19 vaccine. This was reported by the same company to Start Magazine , adding that it "prefers not to comment" on the choices made by the Commissioner.
PIC DID NOT RECOMMEND ARCURI
And Pic didn't even advise Arcuri on the purchase, the company says. The Extraordinary Commissioner reported, in a press office note to the Tagadà broadcast on La7, that the order for 150 million luer lock syringes was made on the advice of CTS, Iss and a manufacturing company . Cts, Iss and Pfizer have already stated that they have not been consulted for the purchase.
Was it Pic who recommended Arcuri? "No," replies the company.
THE CRITICS OF PENTAFERTE
Could it have been the other Italian manufacturer, Pentaferte? It is excluded, because it has repeatedly criticized the purchase offer based on screw-on syringes and not on those (less expensive) traditions.
The company explains that these are syringes (those with luer lock screws not easily available on the market, which require a dedicated mold and which cost much more than the so-called "tuberculin" syringes (which Pentaferte has been producing, since September, for the vaccination campaign of France ) "The announcement provides for the technical characteristics of the syringes that are not available on the market," Gianluca Romagnoli, head of the company at Pentaferte, told Non è l'Arena .
LONG PRODUCTION TIMES
In short, Pentaferte, which participated in the purchase offer, has already said that given the characteristics, the first luer lock syringes that can be used to inoculate the anti Covid vaccine would not arrive before March. In February the company will be able to give life to the mold and then start production.
These syringes require an ad hoc mold and “being a non-standard product, production would start in two or three months”, explained Antonio Masseroni, manager of the Pentaferte plant in Campli, in the province of Teramo, in Tagadà .
NON-ITALIAN SUPPLIERS?
Therefore, the path of a foreign supply is becoming more and more probable, as already proposed by Pentaferte itself. “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-cost and low-quality products, ”Gianluca Romagnoli told the newspaper La Verità.
CHINA HEATS ENGINES?
And in fact, according to what was revealed by Fuori dal Coro , a program led by Mario Giordano, two Chinese suppliers are already ready to satisfy Arcuri's requests. One, writes La Verità today, could sell us 10 million syringes in 30 days at a cost of 2 cents. Another would sell them for 8 cents each.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-pic-e-pentaferte-sballottano-arcuri-sulle-siringhe-luer-lock-per-il-vaccino-anti-covid/ on Thu, 10 Dec 2020 15:12:18 +0000.