The study was conducted for the first time in India
US-based BD Medical-Pharmaceutical Systems in partnership with Indian Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Immunization (IAPCOI) completed a time and motion study to assess the impact on vaccination efficiency with pre-filled syringes (PFS). Time and motion research studies helped determine a significant reduction in time, errors and other health hazards with the usage of PFS. The study was conducted for the first time in India.
It demonstrated the superiority of PFS over single and multi-dose vials in terms of the time taken for vaccination, vaccinator productivity, vaccine wastage, waste generated, and errors occurring during vaccination.
It was an in-vitro study conducted in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata. It assessed the effectiveness of the delivery device or PFS. Vaccination in India is still, predominantly, uses multi-dose vials (MDVs) but PFS offers many advantages over MDVs in terms of efficiency and safety.
The study found that the usage or penetration of PFS in developing countries is as low as one percent while in the US, it is 30 to 40 percent and 80-90 percent in Europe.
Mr Murli Sundrani, director, BD Medical-Pharmaceutical Systems, "The Time And Motion study has confirmed the advantages of single-dose, ready-to-use devices like PFS as they offer benefits such as lesser injection time, lesser errors, and much better productivity to patients, clinicians, and public health users. Collaboration with IAP-COI has helped us confirm that PFS' are risk reducers, as they reduce the occurrence of handling errors and associated health hazard risks as compared to vials."
"PFS had the least scores in the significant Handling errors and Health Hazard Risk (HHRE) scores. The advantages of PFS have been acknowledged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which now recommends it as the preferred system of vaccine administration," said Dr SG Kasi, former member, IAPCOI and principal investigator of the study.
