PROGRESS REPORT – APRIL 1, 2020
Since we started this project on March 20th, COVID-19 has gotten worse around the world. We just passed 1 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide. While new stay-at-home orders will help #flattenthecurve, there is a massive need for ventilators and we are determined to help out. Right now, ventilator production in the US is severely impacted by an inadequately prepared medical supply chain.
Even with ramped up ventilator production, the world will still see major shortages. There are not enough components to make standard ventilators. We aim to solve this problem by looking outside of the traditional medical supply chain to find resources that are readily available.
From the beginning, we have sourced materials for our ventilator prototype with these shortages in mind to produce a low-cost affordable ventilator.
Prototype development is moving along extremely fast. Our engineers have achieved ventilation functionality and the first steps in control systems. With a complete design, we anticipate the emergency FDA approval process to expedite our ability to get it into hospitals immediately. Currently, we are in final talks to secure a global manufacturing partnership in order to produce our ventilators at scale.
We are also setting up additional manufacturing pipelines to be ready for takeoff once we finalize our design. With various supply chains open, we are hoping to have our first batch of ventilators in the next 30 days. The team has been working around the clock to design a functional and quickly manufacturable ventilator.
We anticipate finalizing our design and submitting our application to the FDA next week. Once we finalize a partnership with our manufacturing connections, we are confident that we will be able to make a major, life-saving difference.