Japanese medical equipment firm Metran plans to make 15,000 ventilators for Vietnam to help the country combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which is ravaging the globe, according to Founder and Chairman Tran Ngoc Phuc.

Founder and Chairman of Metran Co., Ltd Tran Ngoc Phuc (left)

Metran has received orders of ventilators from many countries, including Japan, but the company’s capacity is limited so it is working with the world’s leading consulting firms to legally share design specifications of its ventilators to other producers to boost production capacity, said Phuc, a Vietnamese – Japanese.

Metran will transfer its patent to a partner in Vietnam to produce about 15,000 ventilators for the Vietnamese market.

According to the founder, his company is confronting shortage of workers and components for the production and is working to fix the problems.

Once the company resolves issues relating to insufficient supply of components, it is capable of making 5,000 – 10,000 ventilators per month, Phuc noted.

Metran Co., Ltd, based in Saitama, was founded by Tran Ngoc Phuc in 1984, 16 years after he left Vietnam to begin study in industrial chemistry in Tokai University in Japan.

The company has developed a high frequency oscillatory ventilator (HFO), named Hummingbird. Metran’s HFO would allow for diffusion of air supply at a rate thousands of times faster than machines available then.

From a heavy “mechanical beast,” the effectiveness of which recognised by the US renowned medical research centre National Institutes of Health (NIH), the device has undergone several revisions – with the latest sporting a slimmer body and a full touch control panel.

The new machine’s efficiency ensured its widespread presence in Japan, with a reported 90% of Japanese hospitals and medical facilities being outfitted with machines made by Phuc’s company. The paediatric ventilator is also present in hospitals in 12 other countries and continues to expand its global presence.