Medtech trade association AdvaMed today announced the expansion of a website launched in 2020 to help device manufacturers locate and partner with component part manufacturers and sellers, should they need them during the COVID pandemic.
The revamped platform — the Med Device Network — will support the manufacture and delivery of the 12 critical medical supplies identified in President Joe Biden’s National COVID Plan, according to AdvaMed.
The categories of critical supplies listed in Biden’s plan include N95 masks, isolation gowns, nitrile gloves, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sample collection swabs, test reagents, pipette tips, laboratory analysis machines for PCR tests, high-absorbency foam swabs, nitrocellulose material for rapid antigen tests, rapid test kits, low dead-space needles and syringes, and all the necessary equipment and material to accelerate the manufacture, delivery, and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
Several vaccination supplies manufacturers are already active on the site, and AdvaMed expects to bring companies from other sectors on board in the coming weeks.
The Med Device Network is an update of VentConnect, launched in May 2020 to connect ventilator companies with component suppliers. The site was repurposed to cover the entire medical device industry in August of 2020.
The Med Device Network employs the same tactics as the original VentConnect site to connect manufacturers of medical devices with potential suppliers from both inside and outside industries. Manufacturers on the site post lists of part needs, grant individual suppliers access to those proprietary lists and work offline directly with suppliers. The site has also evolved to help provide logistics solutions for manufacturers.
“From the onset of the pandemic, long before the Defense Production Act was ever under consideration, the medtech industry mobilized to 24/7 operations and signaled a strong willingness to partner with the government to help patients suffering from COVID-19 and the frontline health care professionals working to save their lives,” said AdvaMed president and CEO Scott Whitaker in a news release. “This platform will help leverage the sheer strength and scope of our industry, address potential shortfalls in near real time, and allow medtech innovators to respond to ever-changing needs with lightning speed.”
