These syringe prototypes were designed and made by Timaru veterinarian and inventor Colin Murdoch. He had invented the plastic disposable syringe as a way to stop cross-infection which increased after the introduction of antibiotics. Unfortunately the New Zealand Health Department thought the concept was ‘too futuristic’ and patients would refuse to be injected with anything contained in plastic. Multinational drug companies picked up on the idea soon after Murdoch’s patents appeared in international gazettes, and he did not have the resources to challenge them.