San Diego’s ResMed plans to double or even triple production of hospital ventilators amid growing fears of shortages in the U.S. as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.

The company, best known for making sleep apnea machines, also produces ventilators for hospital and home use. Chief Executive Michael “Mick” Farrell said some production lines at factories in Singapore and Australia have switched away from sleep apnea devices to make ventilators.

ResMed also makes ventilators at a factory in Shanghai. Earlier this year, it cranked up production there to meet surging demand from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now that coronavirus cases have slowed in China, ResMed is earmarking capacity at the Shanghai plant toward Europe and the U.S. But Farrell declined to say precisely how many ventilators the company plans to produce.


“Here is ResMed’s philosophy around this: We are going to maximize production of ventilators. We are going to maximize production of ventilator masks,” said Farrell. “Then we are going to work with governments, health authorities and hospitals to understand the current, urgent needs of patients who will literally be dying if they don’t get a ventilator, and we are going to focus on that urgent patient need for the next two to four weeks.”

Some health officials have been raising alarms about a potential shortfall of ventilators as waves of coronavirus cases sweep across New York, California and Washington.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state is projected to need 30,000 more ventilators than currently has deployed within the next two weeks or so. Ford and GM are exploring ways to use their factories to build ventilators.

Farrell, however, said ResMed, Medtronic and other ventilator makers will be able to produce enough to meet demand — if citizens heed recommended social distancing, hand washing and other steps to slow the spread of the virus.


“The limiting step here is not final manufacturing,” he said. “We are good at that. We can scale that. The limiting step is component supply.”

Finding parts such as O-rings, lithium-ion batteries and certain processor chips have been a problem, said Farrell.

“We have had a lot of offers for help from auto manufacturers, which is great,” he said. “But our challenge is to find the right partners to increase the supply chain to go at a rate it has never gone before — two times, three times higher.”

Tesla’s Elon Musk found a way to help without shifting assembly lines away from electric cars. The company’s China team contacted distributors and found a ventilator surplus.


“China had an oversupply, so we bought 1,255 FDA-approved ResMed, Philips & Medtronic ventilators on Friday night and air-shipped them to LA,” Musk posted on Twitter. “If you want a free ventilator installed, please let us know!”

ResMed also has delivered ventilators to the state of California and elsewhere. Farrell declined to say how many.

While ResMed’s products tend to center on out-of-hospital home use, the company does make two platforms for invasive ventilation — where a tube is inserted down the throat for patients who cannot breathe on their own.

ResMed’s ventilators also can deliver air to patients using a non-invasive mask. Some hospitals are wary of this method when it comes to COVID-19, however, because masks do not contain the virus as well as intubation.


“We and most other medical centers are using it very cautiously because of concerns of aerosolizing the virus and increasing the infection risk to others in the hospital,” said Dr. Jess Mandel, pulmonologist at UC San Diego Health.

“My sense is that this risk may be overstated, and our practice may change as experience grows,” added Mandel. “But for now non-invasive ventilation is not playing a major role in our management of these patients.”

Farrell believes mask-based ventilators have a place for patients with less severe systems, especially for those already quarantined in the hospital.

“What we are learning from Wuhan, China, and Milan, Italy, is not everyone needs a life-support ventilator,” he said.


Even with the rise in the trajectory of coronavirus cases, Farrell believes ResMed and its competitors “are going to have enough ventilators for the wave coming to the U.S.”

One concern: A possible shortage of clinical respiratory professionals.

“Ventilators don’t run themselves,” he said. “You need a respiratory therapist, respiratory nurse or pulmonary doc. I know we have amazing heroes out there wearing HazMat suits every day. But can we keep up with the volume of labor we need? I think that is a question we all have to think about.”

