“The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics but never delivered them has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price.”
“The US Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators—paying more than $15,000 each. The first 2,500 units are to arrive before the end of May, HHS said, and the rest by the end of December.”
“Philips refused to say which model of ventilator the government was buying. But in response to questions from ProPublica, HHS officials said the government is purchasing the Trilogy EV300, the more expensive version of the ventilator that was developed with federal funds.”
“The deal is a striking departure from the federal contract Philips’ Respironics division signed in September to produce 10,000 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each.”
Medicynical note: The dealmake who bankrupted five companies and their shareholders is at it again. He’s running the government like his businesses.
His secret is hiring and listening to the uninvormed and incompetent.
Hard to say if we will ever recover.
Medicynic 
Not only is the government getting screwed, but the ventilators will not arrive in time for this pandemic. However, they can go into the federal stockpile for the next, provided we survive to see it.