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By Costas Pitas
LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Britain has given regulatory
approval to a ventilator which will be made by a group of
companies including Airbus, Ford and McLaren, the first such
go-ahead as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus.
Governments around the world are trying to boost the number
of available mechanical breathing devices that can supply air
and oxygen, crucial for the care of people who suffer lung
failure, which can be a complication of COVID-19.
The modified version of an existing design by medical
devices company Penlon will join a product from Smiths, which is
already being built by a consortium of aerospace, engineering,
Formula One and automotive firms to fulfil a government order.
"We are working closely with our supply chain partners to
rapidly scale up production to achieve our target of at least
1,500 units a week," said Dick Elsy, chief executive of the
VentilatorChallengeUK consortium.
The government said on Thursday it wanted 15,000 Penlon
devices and thousands from Smiths.
The initiative comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson
called on industry to help combat the pandemic, with several
manufacturers switching from their normal day-to-day activities
to contribute to the project.
Ford's Dagenham plant in east London, Britain's biggest
automotive engine factory, is now testing and assembling some
components for ventilators.
Planemaker Airbus is using its Welsh Broughton
site, which makes wings for commercial aircraft, for the
sub-assembly of absorbers and flow machines.
McLaren's southern English Woking site is making trolleys on
which the medical devices are fixed for use in clinical
settings.
Over 10,000 mechanical ventilators are available to patients
in Britain's publicly funded health service with more to come
from this production run and overseas purchases, the government
has said.
But whilst new models need approval, it is also taking time
to ramp up the output of existing designs and prompting
questions about suitability.
On Sunday, a source told Reuters that the government had
cancelled an order for thousands of units of a simple model,
known as BlueSky, because more sophisticated devices are now
needed.
Separately, vacuum-cleaner firm Dyson is still awaiting
approval for its ventilator.
"Contracts are under discussion with Dyson and are not yet
available," the Cabinet Office told Reuters on Tuesday in
response to a freedom of information request.
(Editing by Kate Holton and Stephen Addison)
