Virgin Orbit Is Planning To Mass-Produce Medical Devices For COVID-19

Richard Branson’s aerospace company Virgin Orbit has temporarily slowed down their main project so they could help fight COVID-19. Originally, Virgin Orbit focuses on producing rockets to launch small satellites into space. While they are still open for business, the company is now putting most of their focus elsewhere – on creating a new medical device to help treat patients with COVID-19.

As many of you probably know, the world is facing a higher-than-usual demand for ventilators. Virgin Orbit has created a device that would automatically pump oxygen from ambulatory bags to a patient’s lungs. This is normally done manually by emergency responders, but with this new device, the machines would pump the bags on their own. This way, patients who need oxygen but don’t necessarily need to be hooked up to ventilators would be hooked to this new machine instead. This would not only free up ventilators for the people who need them most, but it would also free up health care workers’ time so they could treat patients in critical conditions.

How did a rocket-building company manage to shift gears to produce medical devices, you ask? Well, it turns out a few members of the staff had previous experience in working on medical devices. They were familiar with the terminology and other specifications, thus it was easier for them to understand what needs to be done.

Virgin Orbit is currently waiting for approval from the FDA so they could start mass-producing the new device. Meanwhile, employees are still working towards the company’s main goal – to develop the new rocket called LauncherOne, which will launch satellites into orbit.

Virgin Orbit is not the only company to temporarily shift their focus to help with the current situation. Other companies, such as Dyson, Tesla, General Motors, and Ford are also working on mass-producing important machines like ventilators to help fight the global pandemic.