Xerox and Vortran Medical Partnership to Disposable Mass Produce Ventilators

APR 06, 2020: Xerox Holdings Corporation and Vortran Medical Technology are collaborating with Vortran's GO2Vent ventilator and associated Airway Pressure Monitor (APM-Plus) for hospitals and emergency response units fighting the COVID-19 battle.

The two organizations plan to work together to respond quickly to the shortage of critical ventilation equipment required to help patients breathing. Assuming a stable supply of critical parts, the companies would rapidly increase production from about 40,000 Ventilator in April to between 150,000 and 200,000 Ventilator a month by June. In the coming months Xerox and Vortran could jointly generate as many as 1 million ventilators.

While the GO2Vent is not a replacement for ventilators used in intensive care units (ICUs), it is commonly used in emergency cases, inter-hospital travel and MRIs. Due to the extreme shortage of ICU-grade ventilators, medical practitioners are using devices such as this and other technologies to help patients who do not or no longer require a breathing system at the ICU level that can be released for another patient.

"Our smartest minds worked with Vortran's smartest minds (virtually) and found out how to mass-produce this vital technology," said John Visentin, Xerox's vice president and chief executive. "We want to help ensure that the frontline physicians, nurses and paramedics have the support they need to treat the number of COVID-19 patients."

Xerox plans to manufacture these FDA-approved ventilators and APM-Plus products at its premises outside of Rochester, NY, where the company was founded and retains a large presence. Vortran will continue manufacturing ventilators at its current plant in Sacramento, CA.

"Partnering with Xerox has one clear objective – to help save as many lives as possible. With the proven technology from Vortran and the capacity of Xerox to hyper-scale production, we assume that in the coming months we will supply healthcare providers with as many as 1 million ventilators, "said Vortran co-founder and CEO, Gordon A. Wong, MD. "This will be the most important thing we'll ever be doing for both of us."

GO2Vent from Vortran was planned for emergency use, natural disasters, and outbreaks of disease such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A gas-operated, disposable ventilator that can be mounted within minutes and discarded by a single patient after use, it provides support via a secure airway and can be operated on a compressor, oxygen or air with a flow rate of at least 10 liters per minute.

GO2Vent can provide continuous ventilator support for up to 30 days, and operates independently of the APM-Plus from Vortran. The APM-Plus is a compact, battery-operated system that connects to a GO2Vent and offers enhanced patient status monitoring and main respiratory parameters. Despite the need to confirm key suppliers, the companies are actively evaluating how fast production for the APM-Plus devices can ramp up.

In addition to scaling up development of the GO2Vent and APM-Plus, Xerox and Vortran plan to collect and evaluate data and input from healthcare professionals on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 in order to develop and mass-produce additional, in-line modifications that can be applied to the GO2Vent to broaden possible applications of this life-saving device. Both Xerox and Vortran will distribute the products.