The Hindu Business Line : Hindustan Syringes betting big on public health policies

Growth plans
Implementing a two-year, Rs 100-crore expansion plan to meet the emerging demand from the States and abroad.
For the current fiscal, it anticipates revenue of Rs 300 crore, up from Rs 250 crore last year.

Bangalore , Nov. 2

Medical syringes major Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd says it is betting big on public health policies, which are getting increasingly preventive and pro-active in India and outside.

The Haryana-based company leads in the disposable syringes market with its Dispovan brand. It has now started promoting the self-destructing or auto-disable (AD) syringe as a safe bet against re-use and spread of HIV, hepatitis and other infections.

According to Mr Pardeep Sareen, GM (Marketing), the national immunisation policy has adopted the non-reusable, self-breaking syringes, though many States are yet to follow suit for the curative injections.

The curative segment works out to 95 per cent of the syringes market and this is the pie that his company is focussing on, Mr Sareen told Business Line.

Implementing expansion

HMD is currently in the race for a tender placed by the Karnataka Drugs Logistics & Warehousing Society for a two-year supply of auto-disable syringes to government hospitals and public health centres across the State.

After Kerala switched over to AD syringes four years ago, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Assam are now opting for it.

Said to be Asia's largest syringe maker, Hindustan Syringes is implementing a two-year, Rs 100-crore expansion plan to meet the emerging demand from the States and abroad. Its plants in Haryana make 70 lakh AD syringes a year — besides disposables, surgical blades, needles, intravenous cannulas and infusion sets.

For the current fiscal, HMD anticipates revenue of Rs 300 crore, up from Rs 250 crore last year. Exports generated 25 per cent of the turnover.

Eyeing defence market

Armed with a recent approval from the Directorate-General for Quality Assurance, the company hopes to add the large defence market to its growing AD base, Mr Sareen said.

HMD is among 10 companies licensed globally by Star Syringe, UK, to make the non-resuable syringe. Kojak Selinge figures among the top five global AD brands.

Among its newly added clients are the US-based NGO, PATH (the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) for export to Africa; and Unicef for immunisation in Denmark.

The other hope is Uganda, which plans to go totally AD from next year.

In four years since its Indian launch, the AD syringe holds just 15 per cent of the syringes market. It is definitely the future, Mr Sareen said.

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