The U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Breath Direct Inc. for its BDR-19 critical care ventilator for the treatment of critical care patients with respiratory insufficiency. Initial shipments of the device are expected within weeks. The EUA marks a major milestone for the fledgling Long Beach, Calif.-based company, which was started by medical device entrepreneur Darren Saravis in the early days of the pandemic.

With hospitalizations rapidly rising as the COVID-19 pandemic washes across the world in a winter wave, researchers are racing to develop treatments that protect the increasing number of ventilated patients. One option focuses on protecting muscles critical to breathing.

CAJICA, Colombia –The government of Costa Rica issued guidelines recently that will allow the country’s social security system to source the country's hospitals with ventilators produced by the faculties of the universities of the Latin American country, during the COVID-19 outbreak.

BOGOTA – Mexican home appliances manufacturer Mabe Sa De Cv, from Mexico City, became a new member of the med-tech sector after taking the leap forward and joining the scores of companies around the world shifting their traditional manufacturing lines to develop med-tech products to fight COVID-19.

Ventilators are not designed to sit in storage for long periods of time unused. But that’s precisely what’s often required of this medical device, which then may require substantial repair and updates before it is functional. That’s a tale that’s been told repeatedly in this pandemic.

PERTH, Australia – As New Zealand and Australia prepare to open their economies, regulators in these two neighboring countries are taking very different approaches to regulating COVID-19 devices with New Zealand restricting point-of-care tests, while Australia imposes tougher postmarket activities.

Zoll Medical Corp., of Chelmsford, Mass., received CE mark approval to market its second-generation Supersaturated Oxygen (SSO₂) Therapy in Europe and other countries that accept CE mark. The therapy, which delivers hyperbaric levels of oxygen to the ischemic heart muscle immediately following percutaneous coronary intervention, has been shown to significantly reduce damage to the heart muscle after an acute myocardial infarction.

BOGOTA, Colombia – Med-tech companies across Latin America that have traditionally focused on domestic and regional markets are in a race against time to supply ventilators to deal with worsening COVID-19 outbreaks.

BEIJING – Med-tech firm Shanghai Asclepius Meditec Co. Ltd. says it has developed a hydrogen-oxygen nebulizer that can help relieve the shortage of ventilators.

The U.S. FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to New Haven, Conn., startup Vent Multiplexor LLC for its emergency rescue co-ventilation device. Developed in collaboration with Yale New Haven Hospital, the Vent Multiplexor enables individualized mechanical ventilation of two adults on a single ventilator – lessening demand for more critical care machines in the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.