'Foreign Substances Resembling Fiber...' 700,000 Vaccine Syringes Being Recalled

Medical staff are aliquoting the Pfizer vaccine into syringes at the aseptic workstation (clean bench) inside the Central Vaccination Center of the National Medical Center. Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Health authorities have received reports of foreign substances resembling fibers found in 'Low Dead Space (LDS)' syringes used for COVID-19 vaccinations and are collecting 700,000 syringes from vaccination sites.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) stated that 630,000 of the syringes scheduled for collection had been retrieved by the previous day. Since this was a voluntary report from the manufacturer, the government has not issued an official recall order.

LDS syringes are special syringes developed by domestic companies to minimize vaccine waste by reducing the space between the piston and needle to nearly zero. Using these syringes has attracted attention as it can increase the number of doses per vial of COVID-19 vaccine by 1 to 2 people.

KDCA has contracted to receive a total of 40 million LDS syringes by the end of July, with 27.5 million from DuWon Meditech and 12.5 million from Shin-A Yanghaeng. Currently, syringes from these two companies are being used for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The syringes related to the foreign substance reports are products from DuWon Meditech, and among the syringes supplied by this company, 500,000 have already been used for AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine administration.

KDCA explained that no 'adverse reactions' related to the syringe foreign substances have been reported.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) inspected DuWon Meditech's manufacturing site to prevent recurrence of the foreign substances and instructed the company to take corrective and preventive measures. Additionally, quality support teams have been dispatched to all manufacturers producing LDS syringes to provide technical management and support.

DuWon Meditech plans to improve syringe quality and resupply the government with the amount collected.