Apr27Mon

Philadelphia area news

In unprecedented move, Philadelphia’s regional economic development groups join forces during pandemic
Philadelphia Business Journal

When the first confirmed coronavirus cases began to descend upon Montgomery County in early March, Dave Zellers knew things were going change quickly.

As director of commerce for the county, Zellers and others in the local government were conferring on how to proceed when events relating to the coronavirus began to accelerate in the county. More people were coming down with it and, on March 9, Merck & Co. told its roughly 10,000 employees at its sprawling research and manufacturing operations in West Point to work from home. The company makes vaccines in at its local facilities. The county started to cancel events and make other move to stave off the spread of the virus.

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Apr13Mon

The 5 traits leaders need to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic

Philadelphia Business Journal

Effective leadership traits are important to any organization in normal times. In extraordinary times such as now during the COVID-19 pandemic, these traits are critical.

Non-essential businesses and schools have been ordered to close, causing large swaths of the economy to shut down. Unemployment has risen astronomically.

Those with jobs are concerned if they are next to be laid off. Small-business owners may not have the staying power to outlast the pandemic even with the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program under the recently passed CARES Act.

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Apr13Mon

Member News from Villanova University

CHOP spinoff, Villanova professor share the same goal: Produce a low-cost ventilator
Philadelphia Business Journal

Two initiatives, one by a startup medical device company in the Philadelphia suburbs and the other being led by a local university professor, are aiming to address the shortage of ventilators now in high demand by COVID-19 patients.

The Society of Critical Care Medicine has projected that during the pandemic as many as 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators — but only about 200,000 currently exist.

X-Biomedical, a medtech company spun out of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2017, has decided to temporarily shift its focus to producing low-cost ventilators.

Creating a similar product is also the goal of a team from Villanova University that is led by College of Engineering Professor C. Nataraj.

Nataraj said conversations he had with several physician friends who talked about the need for ventilators is what spurred him to lead the project. The conversations include one who talked about signing death certificates for COVID-19 patients who may have otherwise been helped had more ventilators been available.

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