French companies join forces to make 10,000 ventilators in 50 days
Consortium led by Air Liquide will help ramp up production of critical medical kit
Some of France’s largest companies have joined forces to try to produce 10,000 ventilators in 50 days as President Emmanuel Macron promises to ramp up the production of critical medical equipment to treat coronavirus.
The initiative comes amid a global rush to provide life-saving machines, overwhelming established medical device makers with orders, often at multiples of their normal output.
Mr Macron announced the plan on Tuesday during a visit to a medical-mask factory in the west of the country, where he also said the country was on course to increase the production of masks to 15m a week by the end of April.
“The days to come will not look like the days that have gone before. We must rebuild our national and European sovereignty,” he said.
As part of that push, a consortium led by industrial gas specialist Air Liquide, which is also the only French producer of ventilators, is to “study the possibility” of providing 10,000 respirators by mid-May.
France’s attempts to produce more of the life-saving devices follows other nations that have urged domestic industry to rise to the challenge of plugging the shortage.
In the US, Ford this week said it would produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days in collaboration with General Electric’s healthcare unit. GM is working with another ventilator maker to supply 10,000 a month.
Both carmakers had been criticised by President Donald Trump for not acting more quickly.
The UK has committed to purchase at least 40,000 new ventilators — a mixture of established models and others designed from scratch by companies such as Dyson.
A small research and development consultancy, Science Group, joined the list on Tuesday when it revealed it was in talks with officials to supply a batch of 10,000 machines.
France has recorded 3,523 deaths in hospitals from the coronavirus and has 5,565 people in intensive care. It had only about 5,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators at the start of the crisis.
It has increased that to close to 8,000 and plans a further increase to more than 14,000 in the weeks ahead.
The French ventilator consortium, which includes software company Schneider Electric, carmaker PSA and parts maker Valeo, will use close to 100 suppliers to provide the 300 components for the ventilators.
Air Liquide has said the ventilators will be provided at cost price with the state adding €4bn into its health budget to help with purchases of the ventilators and masks.
The groups join a growing number of big-name manufacturers whose factory lines have halted because of the pandemic that are trying to find ways to plug the ventilator shortage, in efforts reminiscent of a wartime economic push.
Alongside scaling up production, initiatives under way include modifications to existing designs and the creation of new models that can be rapidly churned out.
However, figures in the medical devices sector have cast doubt on whether companies with no experience in the field will be able to deliver the equipment on time for the expected peaks in infections.
Ventilators are highly regulated and must normally go through stringent safety tests, with the manufacturers required to hold special certification. In response to the urgent need, regulators in countries such as Britain and the US have indicated they will relax the normal processes.
Another potential bottleneck is the supply of components and raw materials. One of the top ventilator makers, Germany’s Drägerwerk, has warned global demand will outstrip supply and that its international supply chains “must not be interrupted under any circumstances”.