Social and Economic Award Winner 2011

In 1984, at the age of 23, Marc Koska read a newspaper article that said reused syringes would be a major transmission route for the spread of HIV and AIDS. Appalled at the prospect of such an avoidable catastrophe, he decided to try and do something about it. He spent the next three years researching the problem, studying syringe design and use, learning about plastic injection molding, and patents.

Self-funded, Koska designed the K1 auto-disable (AD) syringe that could be manufactured on existing equipment with a small modification for almost precisely the same cost as standard syringes. The difference is that after the syringe has been used once and medication has been injected by pushing the plunger to the bottom of the tube, it cannot be re-used. If someone tries to pull the plunger back up to reload the syringe it breaks, rendering it useless.

Anecdotal studies estimate that each syringe is used on average four times in developing countries. The World Health Organization says unsafe injections cause an estimated 1.3 million deaths each year, are a common cause of hepatitis B and C in developing countries, and that up to 9% of new HIV infections in those countries may be caused in this way.

In 1996, Koska co-founded Star Syringe to license his K1 auto-disable syringe technology to manufacturers around the world. Even so, it took a total of 17 1⁄2 years from his insight in 1984 before he was able to sell his first product, to UNICEF, in 2001.

But medical workers and the public in developing countries still ignored the problem. In many poor countries, child “rag pickers” hunt for used syringes in garbage dumps. The used syringes are washed, repackaged and sent back to the market as new at a price only slightly lower than that of new, clean, auto disable syringes that never could be reused.

To get the message out, in 2005 Koska founded the SafePoint Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the world about the need for clean injections. Its goal is to ensure that the more than 40 billion injections given each year are given safely. Safepoint rolled out a public relations campaign using the mass media, NGOs, professional bodies, films, lectures, posters, TV and radio shows to get its message to more than 500 million people. As a direct result, the Indian Health Ministry and the Ministry of Health in Uganda made it mandatory for all government health facilities to use AD syringes.

Since 2001, Star Syringe has sold more than 2.5 billion K1 syringes. Koska estimates that as a result some ten million fatal infections have been prevented and so ten million lives have been saved. Safepoint says that hospitals where AD syringes are in use estimate that for every US$1 they spend on AD syringes they can save US$200+ by reducing the costs of infections and treatment caused by reusing syringes.

Star Syringe has 14 licensees worldwide either producing the K1 AD syringe or in the process of preparing a factory to manufacture them. The privately held company does not release financial results, but its sales have been estimated at about £1.6 million per year.

In 2006, Koska was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in recognition of his contribution to global healthcare.