22 June 2020
Ten weeks ago, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology announced the $31.3m Grey Innovation supply contract for 2,000 emergency invasive ventilators. Named after the Greek God of Southern Wind, the NOTUS ventilator is now a full blown reality. To produce this life-saving device in such a compressed timeframe is extraordinary. The consortium members are justifiably proud of this shared achievement.
With the TGA audit of Grey Innovation and the two final assembly lines at Planet Innovation in Box Hill and Medmont International in Nunawading completed last week, we are now at the point of refining the production processes and bringing the line up to speed. We are also on track to manufacture patient circuits and consumables locally through Fairmont Medical.
The NOTUS consortium is manufacturing under license an existing Smiths Medical certified design. Grey Innovation has had positive feedback from the UK acknowledging that we are moving at an unprecedented pace. It’s worth noting that despite commencing the journey to production a month after the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium, which is supporting Smiths in scaling up the delivery of the same ventilator design, we have moved into production at the same time. (The UK consortium includes Rolls Royce, GKN Aerospace, Airbus and UK based F1 teams such as McLaren and Williams).
Whilst restrictions around Australia are being eased, the consortium is working to help boost the national stockpile to ensure there is always a ventilator available to patients in the future.
