Fitbit planning to build ventilators to help treat Covid-19 patients

May companies have shifted their resources to making ventilators right now

Fitbit plans to submit ventilator designs to the Food and Drug Administration under emergency authorisation soon (REUTERS)

Fitbit CEO James Park has told CNBC that his company will be shifting supply chain resources to make emergency ventilators. These ventilators will be used to treat Covid-19 patients and can help bolster national supply of medical devices.

“There was a lot of concern about the shortage of ventilators and we realized we had expertise already around the supply chain,” Park said to CNBC.

Fitbit plans to submit ventilator designs to the Food and Drug Administration under emergency authorisation “in the coming days”, as per the CNBC report. An emergency authorisation allows a medical device/product that has not been officially approved by the FDA to be used to treat a life-threatening disease.

According to CNBC, Park aims for these ventilators to be the “most advanced” emergency user ventilator available for a “lower” cost, however, a price has been determined. Most ventilators cost a thousand dollars and the top-end ones can cost as much as $50,000.

Currently, many organisations have contributed manufacturing resources to make ventilators like GM, Ford, NASA, Belkin and Tesla.