Major ventilator manufacturer Medtronic makes its designs available to any company

A ventilator manufacturer is making its designs available to any company in a position to build the machines in an ‘unprecedented’ move to boost supply and address a global shortage. 

Medtronic said the designs for its PB 560 artificial respirator – already sold in 35 countries around the world – will now be ‘open source’ so any firm can access them. 

The move represents a potentially massive development in the fight against coronavirus because it could provide a quick route for non-healthcare companies with adaptable production lines to start making the machines. 

The announcement by Medtronic came as UK ministers continue to scramble to source as many ventilators as possible. 

The NHS currently has 8,000 ventilators with 8,000 more on order from existing manufacturers. 

The government is also in the process of testing and signing off prototype ventilators worked up by numerous major UK manufacturing companies after ministers issued a ‘call to arms’ earlier this month.

It is hoped thousands of those machines will be supplied to the NHS in the coming months.    

Announcing Medtronic’s decision to make its intellectual property available to all firms, the company’s CEO Omar Ishrak tweeted: ‘Our PB 560 Ventilator is being open sourced. 

‘Medtronic design and specs will be available to be manufactured by anyone. An unprecedented human challenge requires an unprecedented response.

The global company which is headquartered in Dublin said its ‘hope is that manufacturers and engineers will use this intellectual property to inspire their own potentially lifesaving innovations’.

Any firm with an interest in building ventilators based on the designs can register on Medtronic’s website to be granted access to the crucial documents.

Medtronic’s PB 560 was first introduced in 2010 and can be used ‘in a range of care settings’.  

The company said the machine is a ‘solid ventilation solution for manufacturers, inventors, start-ups, and academic institutions seeking to quickly ramp up ventilator design and production’.

Bob White, executive vice president and president of the minimally invasive therapies group at Medtronic, said: ‘Medtronic recognizes the acute need for ventilators as life-saving devices in the management of COVID-19 infections. 

‘We know this global crisis needs a global response. Over the past few weeks, we have ramped up production of our Puritan Bennett 980 ventilators. But we also know we can do more, and we are.

‘By openly sharing the PB 560 design information, we hope to increase global production of ventilator solutions for the fight against COVID-19.’

The company’s announcement comes after NHS trusts called on health chiefs and ministers to provide greater detail on future ventilator capacity as an order was placed for 10,000 machines with leading manufacturers. 

A consortium which includes Rolls Royce is ready to start producing medical devices under the name Project Oyster, and is also jointly scaling-up production of an existing design, known as Project Penguin.

It follows an announcement from Dyson that it had received an order from Boris Johnson to build 10,000 of its own CoVent design. 

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents healthcare trusts, said it was clear ventilator numbers needed to ‘significantly increase’.

Welcoming steps to source more devices, he said ‘extra capacity will take time to deliver’ and it would be ‘helpful’ if forecasts on numbers could be shared with trusts.

Downing Street said testing on other prototypes was continuing ‘at pace’.