British Billionaire and founder of Virgin, Richard Branson has secured Emergency Use Authorization from the United State’s Food and Drug Administration for Virgin Orbit to start delivering Virgin Orbit’s ventilators to hospitals, OYOGist.com has learnt.
The Emergency Use Authorization granted to Virgin Orbit would allow the company to begin delivering the first 100 units to hospitals within a few days, Richard Branson revealed in a LinkedIn Post.
The Virgin founder also revealed that the team behind the ventilators design were able to get the design off the ground and secure the FDA’s approval all within the space of one month.
“Virgin Orbit’s ventilator design has been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the US FDA, allowing the team to begin delivering the first 100 units to hospitals within the next few days,” the British inventor and businessman posted.
“I’m incredibly proud of the Virgin Orbit team. They have worked creatively and tirelessly in responding to the needs of the medical community, getting the ventilators designed, built and approved within one month.”
The ventilators are designed to take over the breathing function of COVID-19 patients with critical respiratory conditions. The company, in a blog post, said the design is a very simple and reliable mechanical device.
The ventilators are also expected to be useful to patients suffering from other severe respiratory conditions or patients in coma after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
“The Virgin Orbit Ventilator is in essence a very simple, very reliable, mechanical device designed to automate common manual resuscitators (also known as bag valve masks, and often referred to colloquially by the proprietary name “Ambu-bag”),” the Virgin blog post read.
The global Coronavirus pandemic that causes the COVID-19 disease has infected close to 3 million people globally, and has killed nearly 200,000, putting the majority of the global healthcare system under severe pressure.
See more pictures of the Virgin Orbit ventilators below:
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