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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 13 2020, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the abiding-by-the-contract dept.

Company prioritizes $15k ventilators over cheaper model specified in contract:

The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics but never delivered them has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price.

The US Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators—paying more than $15,000 each. The first 2,500 units are to arrive before the end of May, HHS said, and the rest by the end of December.

Philips refused to say which model of ventilator the government was buying. But in response to questions from ProPublica, HHS officials said the government is purchasing the Trilogy EV300, the more expensive version of the ventilator that was developed with federal funds.

The deal is a striking departure from the federal contract Philips' Respironics division signed in September to produce 10,000 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each.

"This kind of profiteering—paying four times the negotiated price—is not only irresponsible to taxpayers but is particularly offensive when so many people are out of work," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response during the Obama administration. "And besides, most of these ventilators will come too late to make a difference in this pandemic. We'll then 'replenish' the stockpile at a ridiculously high price."

"What else," she asked, "won't we be able to buy as a result?"


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @02:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2020, @02:32PM (#981984)

    If you think this is basic economics, you should get a refund on the tuition.

    Food prices go up because it's not as easy as the government ordering companies to make more of it and guaranteeing to pay the costs. This is profiteering. The government could order just about any company with manufacturing capacity to convert to building respirators for a fixed price. And then just pay cost + a reasonable profit. They could also throw the execs at companies like this in prison for profiteering like they used to.

    Sadly, it's gone out of style to hold execs accountable when they cause people to die so that their bottom line does a bit better. It's probably getting time to start investing in companies that produce guillotines as the people are fed up of white collar crime going unpunished while the rest of us suffer,.

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