Israeli company Sion Medical, which manufactures bandages, sterile equipment for medical procedures, and disinfectants, has won a fast track tender by the Ministry of Health for setting up a production line for N95 masks providing protection for medical staff against the coronavirus.
The company will begin setting up its production line at top speed, and expects to complete it by April 15. Production will commence in May, with a planned 800,000 masks to be supplied that month, rising to 1.5 million in June and two million masks a month in subsequent months. Sion Medical is already prepared with the appropriate raw materials for producing the first two million masks.
Sion Medical CEO Daniel Lev said, "We are in a crazy period. We are working 24/7 to supply the Israeli health system with medical equipment and protective equipment. A production machine for making three-layer masks that we just bought will arrive in Israel in the coming days in a complicated logistical operation, because the immediate and urgent demand for machines is at an all-time peak all over the world.
"Sion Medical is an international company. We operate subsidiaries in the US, the Netherlands, Mexico, and China, in addition to two production plants in Sderot. Our production lines include thousands of perishable medical products: protective masks, gloves, smocks, bandages, pads, gauze, sterilization kits for surgery and medical procedures, etc.
"We stopped the sales lines to health entities in the US and Europe, and are focusing on supplying equipment to hospitals and health funds in Israel. I hope that we go on selling medical equipment to hospitals and health funds in Israel after the coronavirus, and hope that the procurement agencies do not revert to relying on China.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 17, 2020
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