Ottawa creators of blood analysis system getting $2.5-million to boost production
Posted May 26, 2021 02:26:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ottawa-based medical technology manufacturer Siemens Healthineers is getting a boost from the provincial government to expand and increase production of its epoc Blood Analysis System, which has come in handy during the pandemic.
The system is used in medical settings to test and analyze oxygen levels in blood (among other things) to provide quick and reliable results, on location.
“This system is intended to be used in distributed testing applications where high sensitivity and lab-quality accuracy is required,” says Jeff Franklin, head of research and development at Siemens Healthineers. “Our blood analysis system excels in the monitoring of patient conditions and/or procedures where the time of test makes a difference, including COVID-19 patients.”
Siemens Healthineers will be receiving a $2.5-million grant from the Ontario government under the Ontario Together Fund to help increase their production capacity by an estimate 125 per cent, while creating around 93 jobs over the next five years.
“This will allow us to increase our footprint and create new jobs in Ottawa to serve the growing markets and increase availability of this product to our customers in Ontario,” says Jens Merkel, CFO and Executive director of Epocal Inc. (Siemens Healthineers' Walkey location). “The COVID-19 pandemic, as the ministers pointed out, and its constraints on the global manufacturing distribution challenges has brought to light the importance of local manufacturing.”
To help scale up their production capacity, Siemens Healthineers will be adding an additional $20-million to consolidate their two Ottawa facilities to increase their manufacturing output. According Merkel, this means they will be closing Epocal Inc. while expanding the company's Brookfield road location.
“This will result in an overall increase in available floor space for our manufacturing operations, we will also invest in additional blood test card manufacturing equipment and automation beyond our current need,” he says. “This, together will the additional floors, will ensure that we have production capacity available when needed.”
