Celestica chosen to manufacture 7,500 ventilators

TORONTO – Celestica Inc., a leader in design, manufacturing and supply chain solutions for the world’s most innovative companies, announced that it has won a program to build 7,500 ventilators for StarFish Medical Inc. – a Canadian medical device company – at Celestica’s operation in Newmarket, Ontario.

Celestica will begin manufacturing of the ventilators in May and intends to deliver the finished products on behalf of StarFish Medical to Health Canada for distribution early in the fourth quarter of 2020.

“We are proud to partner with StarFish Medical in supplying the ventilators that healthcare professionals must have to treat COVID-19 patients who are in critical condition,” said Kevin Walsh (pictured), vice president, HealthTech, Celestica. “It’s a Canada-for-Canada alliance that will help to ensure our hospitals and healthcare workers have the equipment they need to save lives.”

StarFish Medical selected Celestica based on its extensive experience that spans design, supply chain, ISO 13485 certified manufacturing and adheres to the highest quality and regulatory requirements.

“We’re working on a very short timetable, and Celestica’s expertise and capabilities across the entire product development cycle will ensure we can meet the deadline and deliver products of the highest quality,” said John Walmsley, EVP strategic relationships, StarFish Medical Inc.

StarFish leads the Canadian Emergency Ventilators project, part of the Canadian Government’s plan to mobilize industry to fight COVID-19. That plan includes Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s (ISED) Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen) initiative to build capacity through superclusters.

The initiative will quickly bring to market more than 30,000 ventilators in Canada to meet the demand for lifesaving medical equipment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada’s advanced manufacturing supercluster – called NGen and based in Hamilton, Ont. – selected a ventilator created by Winnipeg’s Cerebra Health Inc., as a device to be further developed for use combatting the COVID-19 epidemic in Canada.

For its part, the Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGen) is dedicating $50 million to get companies up to speed on producing the medical equipment needed to fight COVID-19 in Canada, including virus screening kits, gloves and gowns, cleaning equipment and ventilators.

StarFish Medical took the lead in updating and modifying the Winnipeg Ventilator for use in the COVID-19 pandemic, in alliance with companies across Canada.

About Celestica
Celestica enables the world’s best brands. Through our recognized customer-centric approach, we partner with leading companies in aerospace and defense, communications, enterprise, healthtech, industrial, capital equipment, and energy to deliver solutions for their most complex challenges. As a leader in design, manufacturing, hardware platform and supply chain solutions, Celestica brings global expertise and insight at every stage of product development – from the drawing board to full-scale production and after-market services. With talented teams across North America, Europe and Asia, we imagine, develop and deliver a better future with our customers. For further information on Celestica, visit www.celestica.com.