Vyaire Medical and Spirit AeroSystems Partner to Greatly Increase Ventilator Production in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

• Published Month : Tuesday, 05 May 2020 12:00 pm

Vyaire will leverage Spirit AeroSystems' considerable industrial capacity and large-scale manufacturing expertise to quickly escalate production rates to unprecedented levels

Vyaire Medical Inc., the global healthcare company fully dedicated to respiratory care, together with Spirit AeroSystems, announced today a new manufacturing and supply collaboration to build critical care ventilators at a converted facility in Wichita, Kan. The temporary special partnership will allow Vyaire to quickly ramp up production of critical care ventilators. This partnership furthers earlier action taken by Vyaire to accelerate production of ventilators and other related respiratory equipment at its primary production facilities based in North America.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our way of life, but this is our opportunity to meet the needs of the American people with this partnership," said Vyaire CEO Gaurav Agarwal. "Spirit's breadth of technical capability, manufacturing prowess and skilled workforce make them ideally suited to support us in scaling our operations to meet this unprecedented demand. On behalf of the entire Vyaire team, I welcome the professionals from Spirit who join us in this cause and extend a deep appreciation for the job they will undertake at this critical time."

Spirit AeroSystems is one of the world's largest non-OEM designers and manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial and defense aircraft and is headquartered in Wichita.

"This collaboration is an opportunity for Spirit to help at a time when our nation needs it most," said Tom Gentile, President and CEO of Spirit AeroSystems. "We are honored to bring our industrial capabilities and skilled workforce to help Vyaire scale up quickly to produce much-needed ventilators during this pandemic."

Spirit has expertise with industrializing and building at high production rates and has a large, well-trained and experienced workforce of assembly mechanics, machinists, factory managers and supply chain professionals already working to support conversion of manufacturing to medical devices. Design of the production system is underway, and teams are readying the facilities with production materials, critical equipment and building infrastructure to stand up manufacturing lines. Training of staff is proceeding and approximately 700 Spirit employees will be assigned to this special project as production ramps up.

The Vyaire/Spirit AeroSystems collaboration is a meaningful action to meet unprecedented demand for ventilation equipment in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vyaire was chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide 22,000 of its LTV2 2200 ventilators to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile. In addition to the national stockpile request, Vyaire is working with state and private hospital and health system clients to ensure delivery of ventilators to areas of greatest need. The manufacturing and supply collaboration will help to balance the needs of clinicians urgently treating patients at the bedside with the commitment to fill or replenish strategic stockpiles. Vyaire is working with customers, including the HHS, to ensure patient need is prioritized and that critical care ventilators are distributed to areas in most need.