Smiths Medical lands major vaccine-related contract

Smiths Medical announced today that it has landed a federal contract to produce more than 78 million syringe-and-needle units and $20 million in federal funding to expand its Keene, N.H. plant to produce them.

The Plymouth, Minn.-based company said it received an order for 78.6 million syringe-and-needle units and that BARDA and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense will foot $20 million of the Smiths’ $38 million capital expansion project in Keene. The partnership will increase needle production capacity by 125 million units per year, according to the company. The federal government will have priority access to this expanded capacity for vaccination efforts dedicated to COVID-19, flu vaccines and future pandemics.

“Over the last 6 months, Smiths Medical has delivered the healthcare industry significant increased production of ventilators, infusion pumps, extended dwell catheters and other respiratory products necessary for treating COVID-19 patients,” said Smiths Medical CEO JehanZeb Noor in a news release. “The current global crisis has galvanized our culture to serve patients and transform the healthcare industry. The BARDA award is an important award in our company’s history, and we will execute relentlessly to help impact millions of lives here in the U.S.”