Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
Role of procurement agency highlighted amid pandemic
Choi Chan-mo
By Lee Kyung-min
By Lee Kyung-min
As the government is attempting to speed up its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the intensity of the countrywide initiative has been dogged by vaccine shortages due to shipment delays.
Guaranteeing the availability of vaccine stocks, the timing of vaccine deliveries and the number of doses possibly being wasted at each stage of the supply chain are considered top concerns. From that standpoint, efforts by a government official to support the country's vaccination program by procuring a substantial amount of Low Dead Space (LDS) syringes have been highlighted.
LDS syringes are customized to minimize the amount of wasted vaccines, allowing them to be administered to more people faster.
In a written interview with The Korea Times, Choi Chan-mo, head of the Training Planning Team at the Public Procurement Training Institute, said he was grateful for the opportunity to quickly procure a large number of LDS syringes to help accelerate vaccination efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Project LDS,” led by Choi and an eight-member taskforce set up at the North Chungcheong Province office of the Public Procurement Service (PPS) in January, has won the Best Administrative Practice Award for procuring 120 million LDS syringes by June at the request of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Two other award recipients were the KDCA and the SMEs ministry.
The experience of having to deliver results under the pressure of a deadline was a task he felt was almost impossible, yet highly rewarding as a civil servant, Choi recalled.
“We worked long, uncertain hours with nothing on our minds but the mission to help the public navigate the unprecedented health crisis,” he said, Tuesday. “The pressure was high because the only thing certain was the uncertainty of whether we would be able to procure the syringes in time. Now that it's over, we all feel heartened that we were part of the containment effort.”
Choi set up the taskforce on Jan. 16, immediately after a phone call from a health agency official who said vaccination could not proceed without 40 million syringes.
“We knew we had to move fast, because the official said 10 million syringes were needed by only about a month from then, before the first batch of vaccines were to arrive in February, with the remaining 30 million by June.”
The procurement agency had little information on syringe producers, let alone a public bidding history in its database, a reason why he sought cooperation with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to gather information about the number of syringe manufacturers in the country and their production capacity.
With a list of 18 viable manufacturers expected to produce a combined 110 million syringes by June, the taskforce shortened the procurement process, removing administrative red tape that usually slows the process down by months.
The first 40 million syringes were produced by two manufacturers able to make 30 percent of the total within 20 days of signing the order contract.
The taskforce then inked a contract with other manufacturers whose production capacity was able to meet the sudden surge in demand in May when the syringe supply fell short of that of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
“Eventually, we signed contracts with seven makers for the June delivery of the required quantity of 120 million syringes. They are now exporters of the best-quality LDS syringes, known to save 20 percent of the vaccine in terms of volume.”
One of the manufacturers, Poonglim Pharmatech, has exported over 30 million LDS syringes to Japan, and 1 million each to the U.S. and India.