Portsmouth Aviation plans to start manufacturing negative ventilators to assist those suffering from COVID-19 respiratory effects.
A negatively pressured ventilator means the treatment is noninvasive; the patients can receive breathing assistance through a mask, making them conscious, upright, and the ability to talk to their loved ones on phone during treatment.
On the other hand, positive pressured ventilators that are currently used in hospitals for COVID-19 treatment require that patients are put in a medically induced coma and intubated.
Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group (MADG) initially developed four prototype negative pressure ventilation assistance devices were in partnership with Exovent, a task force developed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Exovent is a group of scientists, medical professionals, manufacturers, engineers, and academics who collaborated following calls from the UK government for raid innovation to tackle the challenges faced by COVID-19. The group of professionals identified the need for applying negative pressure technology in the global strive against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
The pressured ventilators have been in the pre-reproduction stage through various stringent testing processes, so MADG will pass over its background knowledge, design and engineering drawings, data, and a working prototype of the device to Portsmouth Aviation to reach an appropriate CE marking so they can create their device and produce it in high volume production.
The managing director of Portsmouth Aviation Simon Escott said; “We are extremely grateful to MADG for their extensive work towards the production of the four pre-production units. Portsmouth Aviation is delighted to be a part of the exciting innovation and potentially globally lifesaving solution at a key point in its development and to take it through to manufacture.
“We are glad to be allowed to be a part of something that will soon provide valuable support to our valued NHS and assist in the battle against COVID-19. We are hoping to become an integral partner in this venture and work closely with every party involved.”
For the past six months, Portsmouth Aviation has been working in collaboration with the Exovent team and having reached an agreement with MADG, the next step is to continue the development of the device in reparation for regulatory approval. They plan to submit the device for approval by August and hope the confirmation is received by end of the year.
MADG chief executive Gary Moynehan said: “We are delighted to be able to hand the project over to Portsmouth Aviation and are optimistic that with their engineering and manufacturing expertise, they will be able to deliver a cost-effective product that will ultimately prove invaluable in the treatment of patients with a broad range of respiratory issues.”
