Detroit Auto Makers Near Finish Line in Covid-19 Ventilator Push
August 15 2020 - 7:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
Detroit's two largest auto makers are nearing completion of
federal contracts to manufacture tens of thousands of ventilators,
capping a frenzied effort begun in the spring to mass-produce the
breathing machines for the sickest Covid-19 patients.
Ford Motor Co. by late next week will have made about 43,000
ventilators with its partner, General Electric Co., at a factory in
suburban Detroit, a Ford spokeswoman said Friday. The companies
expect to reach 50,000 by the end of August to fulfill a $336
million contract with the Department of Health and Human Services,
she said.
General Motors Co. is on track to complete 30,000 ventilators at
a converted Indiana factory by the end of the month, fulfilling its
terms under a $490 million federal contract with its partner, the
Seattle-area medical-device maker Ventec Life Systems, a GM
spokesman said.
GM plans to turn over operations at the factory to Ventec for
future production, citing a continued need for ventilators beyond
the federal contract.
Ford declined to comment on what will happen with the facility
producing its ventilators once work under the contract is
complete.
Completion of the work by GM and Ford would conclude an unusual
and high-profile push by the car companies to apply an
assembly-line approach to mass-produce breathing machines that
normally are hand-built in the dozens a week.
GM signed its federal contract after President Trump invoked
this spring the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law he used
to order companies to manufacture devices and medication to fight
Covid-19. He had criticized GM and Chief Executive Mary Barra for
wasting time in negotiations with federal officials over ventilator
production.
At the time of Trump's criticism, GM was working to prepare
ventilator production. The same week it shut down U.S. factories as
Covid-19 cases surged, GM joined with Ventec and scoured the auto
maker's chain of thousands of suppliers to duplicate parts from
Ventec's ventilator and make them on a large scale.
Ford worked with GE to produce a ventilator with a design that
operates on air pressure rather than electricity. The design was
developed by Airon Corp., a small Florida medical-device maker.
Ford and GE originally said they expected to reach 50,000
ventilators in July.
Ventilators mechanically pump air into the lungs of patients who
can't breathe on their own, a situation common in the worst
Covid-19 cases. The devices are made with hundreds of parts,
including valves, blowers, tubes, electronics and software, which
regulate how much oxygen reaches the lungs and with how much air
pressure.
The auto makers said they stepped in because they wanted to
apply their manufacturing expertise in a moment of national crisis.
Mr. Trump visited Ford's ventilator operation at the suburban
Detroit factory in May.
This spring the federal government signed contracts with several
manufacturers for more than $2.9 billion to produce at least
187,000 new ventilators by year-end for the U.S.'s strategic
national stockpile. The machines are being delivered to the
Department of Health and Human Services, which distributes them as
needed, the department has said.
While the GM-Ventec machines are being delivered to the federal
government, Ventec strategy chief Chris Brooks said he expects some
hospitals to purchase ventilators on their own to prepare for
potential localized surges in Covid-19 cases.
"We've seen critical-care ventilators continue to support
patients as they fight Covid-19, and that will be needed until
there is a vaccine," Mr. Brooks said.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2020 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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