How Canada produced thousands of new ventilators within months by Matthew Hague was published by MaRS DD News on December 16, 2020.
Subheaded: “Supply chain disruptions meant medical device manufacturer StarFish Medical had to get creative,” the article details the journey of the Winnipeg Venitilator 2.0 from inception to first commercial units.
“Buying more ventilators was impossible. The international supply chains that would, under normal circumstances, distribute such devices were constricting due to factory shutdowns, border closures and soaring demand from the many countries facing similar shortfalls.
As a solution, the Canadian government decided to refocus its procurement and innovation programs to build upward of 40,000 ventilators, all made within our borders.”
Jayson Myers, the CEO of NGEN, concludes the article with this thought, “Frankly, Canada had very limited ventilator manufacturing capacity.We had a limited number of ventilators in use in ICU and most of those ventilators had come in from other countries, such as the United States, Germany, France and China, which were all stopping their outward shipments. This really shows we have so much capacity for manufacturing innovation right here.” That’s something we can all breathe easier about.
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