Partnerships with Canadian industry to fight the COVID-19 pandemic

The Government of Canada recently sent a call to action to Canadian businesses and manufacturers to help deliver critical health supplies that will help Canada fight the COVID‑19 pandemic. Since then, the government has been working collaboratively with almost 3,000 companies who have stepped up to offer their expertise and capacity.

The revolutionary, portable and patented ClearMate lets medical teams treat CO victims as effectively as hyperbaric oxygen, without delay. (Photo Source: Thornhill Medical)

Working with Canadian industry

The Government of Canada has signed new procurement agreements with the following Canadian companies:

• Thornhill Medical is a medical technology company located in Toronto that manufactures portable ventilators. The Government of Canada has ordered over 1,500 ventilators from multiple companies, including Thornhill as a significant partner, and is working on a plan to distribute them appropriately.
• Medicom is a manufacturer of medical-grade personal protective equipment, including surgical masks, with a head office in Montréal. The Government of Canada has already placed orders for tens of millions of masks from the company to be delivered over the coming months, and is in the process of finalizing an agreement that would support the development of a manufacturing facility in Canada to ensure ongoing supply. The government has ordered more than 157 million surgical masks, including masks from Medicom, and will work with partners to distribute them to hospitals and medical facilities across Canada.
• Spartan Bioscience is an Ottawa-based manufacturer of portable DNA diagnostic equipment, and has filed a submission for its COVID‑19 rapid testing kits to be reviewed by Health Canada on an expedited basis, and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spartan’s research is supported by the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program, and the Government of Canada has awarded a contract to accelerate Spartan’s innovative work on rapid COVID‑19 diagnostic testing.

Cooperation from companies and industries

The Government of Canada also welcomes the cooperation of other companies and industries that have answered the call to action and offered their support in the fight against the COVID‑19 pandemic:

• General Electric Healthcare has already doubled its capacity for ventilator production, and has plans to double it again over the next few months, including an additional 500 ventilators for the Government of Canada to respond to COVID‑19.
• Companies like Magna, General Motors, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Ford, Linamar, Shell, Suncor, Alibaba Group, and The Home Depot have helped Canada’s health care professionals by collecting and donating personal protective and safety equipment and sanitizing supplies for use in hospitals and medical facilities.

Building Canadian capacity through superclusters

Through the Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGEN Canada), at least $50 million has been made available to develop and produce new, in-demand technologies, equipment, and medical products such as virus screening tests, vaccines, therapeutics, and symptom management treatments. It also includes medical equipment to care for Canadians such as ventilators, peripherals, personal protective equipment, and cleaning and sterilization chemicals and equipment.

The supercluster issued a call out to its members and organizations across Canada for project proposals. It has since reviewed and conditionally approved three projects to address critical health care needs and build Canadian manufacturing capacity.

Three projects from the supercluster will move forward to address current health care needs as well as build long-term manufacturing capacity in Canada. These three projects emerged out of an outpouring from members and organizations across the country within 48 hours of the call for projects.

• Face shields using 3D printing:
  • Burloak Technologies is collaborating with local health care specialists, colleges, and universities to meet a goal to manufacture 15,000 face shields per week.
  • Production is expected to begin in two weeks.
• Open-source ventilator design:
  • Linamar and StarFish Medical are bringing together a group of companies to work on this project, which has two interrelated goals to increase the availability of ventilators in Canada.
  • Their first aim is to develop an open-source, safe, effective, and cost-efficient ventilator design.
  • Their second goal is to assemble manufacturers and suppliers to quickly ramp up production of the selected ventilator designs.
• Rapid test kits:
  • Sona Nanotech, together with a consortium of laboratories, universities, and hospitals, will use nanotechnology to develop point-of-care test kits that will improve the accuracy of virus detection and provide results in 5-10 minutes.
  • If successful, the project will yield 20,000 test kits available per week, with the potential to scale-up to 1 million test kits per week, while keeping costs within range of other comparable infectious-disease screening protocols.