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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @08:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 14 2020, @08:31PM (#982764)

    And that is the point where a Government will step in to protect it's people if it is price gouging. Yes, I expect that a vendor will keep their prices equal to the same profit margin in the midst of a crisis. They can raise prices if their expenses go up. Because the company doing that will face penalties worse than those fines if they are caught at it. If an individual buys up a shelf full of hand sanitizer with the expectation of selling it off at 10 times the price that is gouging and such a person should in fact be sent to jail. 1.5 times the price? It's still a gouge because that person has offered no value for it but probably not prosecutable.

    If there is anything that the online market has ruined it is the ability for governments to protect people from price gougers.

    Have some common sense. Does anybody in their right mind think that price gouging should be allowed? That is basic humanity.