Japan's Abe wants to build ventilators that hospitals probably don't need
21/05/2020 05:15
* Hospitals may not need the ventilators that Abe wants to
build
* Only fraction of Japan's ventilators used on COVID-19
patients
* Ventilator makers struggle to buy more parts from overseas
* Japan may not have enough doctors, nurses for new
ventilators
By Tim Kelly and Maki Shiraki
TOKYO, May 21 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
has pledged to build 2,000 new ventilators for coronavirus
patients that even the government says hospitals are unlikely to
need.
Instead, the plan, announced in April, appears to be more
about bringing home manufacturing of equipment seen as key to
the country's national security, a long-held focus for the
Japanese premier that has deepened with the coronavirus crisis.
Abe wants Japanese companies to build 2,000 ventilators to
add to an unused stock of 4,700 already in hospitals. A further
8,300 are deployed in critical care units, of which only a
fraction are used to keep COVID-19 patients alive.
But even the health ministry acknowledges that hospitals,
which now buy almost all their ventilators overseas, likely have
enough, while industry experts say Japan's small
ventilator-makers will struggle to produce more than the few
dozen a month they usually build.
"It is probably more than Japan needs now," said Akihisa
Maeda, an official at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour
who is responsible for medical device policy, about the number
of ventilators. "It is true there aren't enough qualified people
to operate them."
Abe's plan shows how the coronavirus crisis is spurring
political concern about the potential vulnerability of overseas
supply lines. Japan is also offering firms money to shift
production of face masks and other products from China.
Japan needs to cut dependence on imports from the United
States, Europe and China, said the health ministry's Maeda.
"It's a matter of national security. The coronavirus
outbreak has shown that."
Ventilators are used to inflate the fluid-filled lungs of
critically ill COVID-19 patients through a tube inserted into
the windpipe, and require constant monitoring.
Yet so far, only around 5% of seriously ill COVID-19
patients in Japan need the procedure known as intubation, a
panel of experts has said. In early May there were 4,500
hospitalised cases, meaning roughly 270 were on ventilators. In
Japan just under 800 people have died.
"It's like building fighter jets without having pilots," a
leading intensive care specialist said about the government's
plan. Every new ventilator needs health professionals who are in
short supply, he said, asking not to be identified.
The Japan Society of Respiratory Care also said there are
enough ventilators, barring a major coronavirus surge.
CATS AND DOGS
Ventilator makers require technicians to ramp up production,
but even with additional manpower, they still need to find
components overseas amid strong international demand.
"My first thought was, it's going to be tough to get the
parts," said Akikazu Endo, sales and marketing manager at
ventilator maker Sanko Manufacturing, about the government's
plan.
At its small plant next to a vegetable field an hour by
train from Tokyo, Sanko is making coronavirus ventilators with
parts from human anaesthesia machines and ventilators designed
for cats and dogs.
It usually hand builds around 30 ventilators a year, and
initially proposed to build 300. It later scaled that back to
50.
Sanko buys electronic boards from China and will have to
wait as long as six months for more, Endo said. Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry officials, who visited Sanko,
connected it with a Japanese company that can build the same
part, but conducting tests will take time and money, he said.
"We can't be in a situation where we run out of
ventilators," a METI official told Reuters.
Nihon Kohden, which builds 30 ventilators a month, is aiming
to manufacture 1,000 within six months. It is still in talks to
secure parts, a spokeswoman said.
'RISKY MARKET'
Given the parts shortage, Abe has asked Toyota Motor Corp
7203.T , Nissan Motor Co 7201.T , Sony Corp 6758.T and
others to help.
Unlike U.S. President Donald Trump, who has invoked Korean
War-era laws to compel manufacturers to build some 200,000
ventilators, Abe's more modest 2,000-target faces hurdles
because he can't force Japanese companies to cooperate.
"Companies tend to see ventilators and other invasive
medical devices as too much of a gamble," an official at the
Japan Association of Medical Devices Industries said.
Speaking as head of the Japan auto industry lobby, Toyota
president Akio Toyoda said automakers wanted to take a back seat
by providing manufacturing know-how, saying it was "not easy" to
make products that so directly affect human life.
An auto executive told Reuters the industry had other
concerns.
"We are willing to cooperate, but it's a small and risky
market," the executive said, asking not to be identified.
A Sony spokesman said it won't be responsible for ventilator
design or development. Nissan said nothing had been decided.
The health ministry's Maeda said there's no deadline for
Japan Inc to deliver.
"Our aim is to achieve a balance between imports and those
made locally."
(Reporting by Tim Kelly and Maki Shiraki; additional reporting
by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by David Dolan & Shri Navaratnam)
((tim.kelly@thomsonreuters.com; +813-6441-1311;))