Samsung to supply one million LDS syringes to help cut COVID-19 vaccine wastage

The technology behind LDS syringes demonstrated up to 20 percent greater efficiency. If existing syringes were to deliver one million doses, LDS syringes could deliver 1.2 million doses with the same amount of vaccine, the company said.

Viswanath Pilla

May 26, 2021 / 17:34 IST

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Consumer electronics maker Samsung has said it is importing one million innovative Low Dead Space (LDS) syringes from South Korea that will reduce COVID-19 vaccine wastage.

LDS syringes minimise the amount of drug left in the syringes after an injection, reducing vaccine wastage, and thereby enabling 20 percent more people to get the dose with the same amount of vaccine.

LDS syringes, airlifted from South Korea, have been delivered to Uttar Pradesh – 325,000 each to the district administrations in Lucknow and Noida – while 350,000 LDS syringes will soon be handed over to the Greater Chennai Corporation in Tamil Nadu. These syringes will be deployed at COVID vaccination centres in the districts.

This is part of the company's COVID support programme for the country.

"The technology behind LDS syringes has demonstrated up to 20 percent greater efficiency. That means if existing syringes were to deliver one million doses, LDS syringes could deliver 1.2 million doses with the same amount of vaccine," Samsung said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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