Back in 2014, the US Department of Health and Human Services signed a contract with Dutch electronics giant Philips to develop an inexpensive, easy to use ventilator that could be manufactured quickly and provided to hospitals for use during a possible pandemic. HHS paid Philips Respironics $13.8 million to develop the ventilator, which the health agency wanted for the Strategic National Stockpile. In July of 2019, the ventilator, called the “Trilogy Evo Universal,” was approved by the FDA, and in September, HHS signed a contract for Philips to make 10,000 of the things for the low, low cost (seriously, that’s very low!) of just $3,280 per unit.
But there’s some excellent news this week, at least if you’re Philips Respironics! HHS announced Wednesday that it’s signed a new contract with Philips to buy 43,000 ventilators from the company. Not the inexpensive model developed at taxpayer expense, which has never gone into mass production, but instead the commercial variant, the Trilogy EV300, for which HHS will pay more than $15,000 each, at a total cost of $646.7 million.
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Philips explains that since the contract for the basic, inexpensive ventilators allowed it to develop a commercial version, then that’s perfectly fine. And besides, last fall’s contract gives Philips until 2022 to deliver those simple ventilators for the stockpile, so the company will definitely hit that deadline, probably. (Not stated: Gosh, now that the new contract is supplying four times as many vents at four times the price, will the stockpile even need the cheap ones anymore?)
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Article URL : https://www.wonkette.com/super-negotiator-trump-pays-four-times-contracted-price-for-ventilators-not-one-penny-less