The COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge demand for respiratory devices, especially mechanical ventilators. Major manufactures’ revenues on their ventilator business are considerably above the prior year in Q3, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Dräger’s net sales in Q3 went up 35.7% compared with last year. Another major manufacture, Getinge’s net sales on the Acute Care Therapies also went up by 63.1% compared with Q3 2019 due to increased ventilators orders in 2020.

Tina Deng, Principal Medical Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “This trend is moving towards a normalized demand for COVID-19 related devices, as many companies see the growth in Q3 at a slower pace than in Q1 and Q2. GlobalData expects global demand for respiratory support will steadily return to normal by the end of 2020.

Most of the new ventilators that were purchased due to COVID-19 are being held in reserve. The national stockpile in the US had reached its maximum capacity for ventilators, with nearly 120,000 available for deployment. According to a report from National Audit Office in the UK, only around 2,150 mechanical ventilator units had been dispatched to the NHS by September. The remaining units, over 25,000 are stored in warehouses, because the actual usage of ventilators has proven to be less than original projections.

Deng continues: “According to Getinge’s Q3 reports, while the sales of capital equipment in Acute Care Therapies surged by 232% driven by ICU ventilators, the sales of related consumables only increased 1.8% compared with the same time period last year. This also indicates the actual usage of the ventilators has not increased dramatically in 2020. Nevertheless, the stock can be used in case of the future waves of COVID-19.”