OTTAWA — The Ontario government is investing $2.5 million in Siemens Healthineers through the Ontario Together Fund.
The investment will help increase the production capacity of the epoc Blood Analysis System, a handheld device that can analyze oxygen levels in blood, helping clinicians make faster decisions with lab-quality results at the patient’s side.
The project is expected to create 93 jobs over five years. To scale up their production capacity, Siemens Healthineers is investing over $20 million into their Ottawa facilities to increase their manufacturing output.
“The renewed Ontario Together Fund will continue to strengthen our domestic manufacturing sector, support local innovators and boost our worldclass MedTech ecosystem,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.
“Companies like Siemens Healthineers and their epoc Blood Analysis System are a perfect example of projects that can transform our ability to respond to a crisis and …strengthen our health care system.”
Siemens Healthineers is a leading life sciences company and a global market leader in diagnostic imaging and services. After a highly competitive international bidding process, Siemens Healthineers selected Ottawa and Ontario as the location to increase the production capacity of the epoc Blood Analysis System, making a significant investment of $20 million into their Ottawa facilities.
Ontario’s investment will help Siemens Healthineers to increase their domestic manufacturing capacity of the epoc Test Card used in the Blood Analysis System. The company will add two manufacturing lines and packaging automation and make 2.4 million cards per month. This is a 125 per cent increase in production capacity.
“We are very grateful to have received the Ontario Together Fund for our Point of Care business in Ottawa,” said Mathias Ganzmann, Vice President, Site Operations, Siemens Healthineers. “This funding will help us with our expansion plans.”
The handheld wireless device is used at a patient’s bedside — for example, for someone on a ventilator — to measure their blood gas parameters, including oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH levels, and their lung functioning. Other companies who received funidng includes
• Guelph-based Linamar Corp. to retool its assembly line to manufacture ventilator components to produce 10,000 Ontario-made e700 ventilators, in partnership with O-Two Medical Technologies and Bombardier.
• Greenfield Global for a major upgrade of the Johnstown, Ontario facility’s distillation technology to domestically produce over 114 million litres of specialty medical-grade alcohol annually, to be used in hand sanitizers and other applications.
• OPHARDT Hygiene Technologies Inc. to manufacture soap and sanitizer dispensers. This new capacity has localized production, thereby increasing the supply of up to 300,000 dispensers and one million dispenser drive modules per year.