Apr 08, 2020

Philips and the U.S. government collaborate in ventilator production ramp up to combat COVID-19 pandemic

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced that the U.S. Government and Philips agreed to team up to increase the production of hospital ventilators in its manufacturing sites in the U.S. Philips plans to double the production by May 2020 and achieve a four-fold increase by the third quarter of 2020 for supply to the U.S. and global markets. Such ventilators are critical for the treatment of patients with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Philips will invest several tens of millions in its ventilator manufacturing sites in the U.S.

“We are actively collaborating with the U.S. government to help save lives in the U.S. and across the globe,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “There is an unprecedented global demand for medical equipment to help diagnose and treat patients with COVID-19. We welcome the support of the U.S. government in our efforts to aggressively increase the production of hospital ventilators. We believe in fair allocation of scarce medical equipment to those who need it the most, and we are ramping up to deliver 43,000 units to the most critical regions in the U.S. in the coming weeks and months through December 2020.”

We are actively collaborating with the U.S. government to help save lives in the U.S. and across the globe.

Frans van Houten

CEO of Royal Philips

In line with the recent call to action by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and World Health Organization (WHO), Philips and the U.S. government have agreed to work together to accelerate access to critical materials and components, expedite logistics and regulatory approvals, in order to rapidly increase the production of ventilators.

In the first three months of this year, Philips already delivered several thousand ventilators to U.S. hospitals. As a result of its production ramp up, Philips was able to deliver an additional batch of ventilators to one of New York’s hospitals, to help provide immediate relief to the surge of COVID-19 patients within the city.

Philips believes that critical medical equipment, such as hospital ventilators, should be made available across the world using a fair and ethical approach to allocate supply to acute patient demands based on data such as the COVID-19 statistics per country/region (e.g. provided by the WHO and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center) and the available critical care capacity. Philips may divide orders into batches to be delivered in phases, so that the company can simultaneously serve multiple countries/regions in need.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 80,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Forward-looking statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Philips and certain of the plans and objectives of Philips with respect to these items. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements made about the strategy, estimates of sales growth, future EBITA, future developments in Philips’ organic business and the completion of acquisitions and divestments. By their nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.