HHS enters $336N contract with GE for 50,000 ventilators

Invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has entered a new, $336 million contract with General Electric (GE) that will see 50,000 ventilators supplied to the government by July 13.

“The President promised on March 27 that we would have 100,000 more ventilators within 100 days, and we now have contracts to produce more than 117,000 in that time frame, and more than 187,000 total this year,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. “These companies and their incredibly dedicated workers will ensure that our country can provide our hospitals and healthcare providers with the ventilators needed to sustain and save lives during this pandemic. The thousands of ventilators delivered to the Strategic National Stockpile starting this month, continuing through the spring and summer, will mean we have more capacity to respond to the pandemic as it evolves.”

The United States has faced supply shortages of a variety of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Invocation of the DPA was finally announced earlier this month by President Donald Trump, amid criticism of lacking federal action. That order directed HHS and the Department of Homeland Security to work with domestic manufacturers to build ventilators, ramping them up to meet demand and removing obstacles along the supply chain.

Combined with other contracts announced this month, HHS states that it should be able to produce or acquire more than 41,000 ventilators by the end of May and more than 187,000 ventilators by the end of the year.