Dive Brief:

• The Department of Health and Human Services late Monday detailed seven new contracts for ventilator production totaling more than $1.43 billion, five of which are rated under the Defense Production Act. 
• The DPA contracts went to GE, Hillrom, Medtronic, ResMed and Vyaire, with two other contracts awarded to Hamilton and Zoll. Of the newly finalized contracts, Hamilton Medical's is the largest at $552 million for 14,115 ventilators, and Medtronic's is the smallest at $9.1 million for 1,056 ventilators. 
• The new deals build on a pair of DPA contracts announced last week for GM and Philips, which altogether exceed $1.1 billion for 73,000 ventilators.

Dive Insight:

After hesitating to use the DPA to prod production of the life-saving breathing machines, the administration has steadily ramped up its use of the law amid calls by desperate hospitals and governors in hot spots and soon-to-be hot spots facing, or bracing for, a deluge of patients. 

Under the DPA, which was passed in 1950, the president can require companies to prioritize and accept contracts for materials and services to promote the national defense, as well as incentivize the domestic industrial base to expand the production and supply of critical materials and goods.

In its announcement of the finalized contracts, HHS laid out the contract prices and a series of dates by which companies must supply defined numbers of ventilators.