A medical ventilator. Photo: Przemysław Jahr via Wikicommons.

CTech – State-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and medtech company Medical Solutions have converted an IAI factory into a ventilator-producing manufacturing line, the ministry announced Tuesday. The impromptu factory produces Ventway Sparrow-type ventilators, 30 of which have already been delivered to the country’s Ministry of Health.

Using the new manufacturing line, the Defense Ministry expects to produce 50 such machines a week, scaling up to 100 a week after the Passover holiday that ends in mid-April.

Ventilators have been proven to be a bottleneck in treating the more serious symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) in many of the countries currently experiencing an outbreak. Patients in critical condition may experience severe respiratory distress and mortality rates rise even further when ventilators are unavailable. According to the Health Ministry, Israel currently has only 2,173 ventilators in stock, 28 of which are faulty.

Inovytec, which is based in central Israeli town Raanana, develops portable medical devices for use in respiratory and cardiac emergencies. The company was founded in 2011 and employs a team of 20 people. The respiratory machine it developed became available in 2018 and is in use by the Israeli military’s medical corps. Last week, Calcalist reported that the company will provide the defense ministry with 1,000 respiratory machines, with the first machines to be delivered in May.

Government-owned IAI is Israel’s largest aerospace and defense company. It develops and markets defense systems for air, space, sea, land, cyber, and homeland security.