Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) today said it received additional pandemic orders for needles and syringes from the U.S. and Canada, totaling 177 million devices.
The U.S. ordered an additional 140 million injection devices, bringing the total orders from BD to 190 million devices. Canada ordered an additional 37 million devices, totaling 75 million devices from BD.
BD has received a total of 330 million needle and syringe orders from the U.S., Canada and the U.K., which will be delivered by the end of this year with the anticipation of a COVID-19 vaccine being approved by the end of the year or early 2021.
The company said it does not expect the influx of orders to impact its ability to fulfill existing customer requirements for needles and syringes.
“Proactive actions taken by the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to order injection devices now will help these countries be ready to administer a vaccine when one is approved and ready,” Rick Byrd, president of medication delivery solutions for BD, said in a news release. “BD’s commitment to manufacture hundreds of millions of needles and syringes for the global COVID-19 response reinforces the company’s dedication to helping the health care community control and defeat this virus.”
BD previously announced on July 8 that the U.S. government, through the Department of Health and Human Services’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, would invest $42 million to boost syringe and needle production. The HHS also bought hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 antigen tests from BD in a deal announced on July 15.