Hogan Lovells advises Ford, Kraft Group/New England Patriots in separate efforts to provide medical supplies for coronavirus aid

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- International law firm Hogan Lovells is providing pro bono advice on two significant matters that are helping the United States obtain the critical supplies it needs to fight the battle against coronavirus.

Ford and GE Healthcare

The firm is representing Ford Motor Company in its collaboration with GE Healthcare to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days, with the ability to produce 30,000 a month thereafter as needed, to help coronavirus patients. The firm is advising on the collaboration, intellectual property, and FDA and other regulatory aspects of the partnership.

"We are very grateful for the contributions made by the Hogan Lovells team in helping us to put this important collaboration together," said Bradley Gayton, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, Ford Motor Company. "With the support of Hogan Lovells, Ford is working as quickly as possible to save lives and help our country get through the COVID-19 health crisis."

The pro bono team was led by Global Head of M&A and Corporate partner Bill Curtin and IP and Technology Transactions partner Audrey Haroz Reed, with assistance from IP partners Cullen Taylor and Zenas Choi; Life Sciences Transactions partner Adam Bellack; Global Regulatory partners Kelliann Payne, Michael Heyl, Michael Vernick, Latane Montague, and Joy Sturm, and Global Regulatory senior associates Katherine Morga, Annie Vanselow, and Katie Lannon.

The collaboration will enable Ford to manufacture and quickly scale production of a ventilator that GE Healthcare has licensed from Airon Corp., a privately held company specializing in high-tech pneumatic life support products. The goal of the companies is to produce the ventilators within 100 days and up to 30,000 a month thereafter as needed. The manufacturing will take place in Michigan.

The GE/Airon Model A-E ventilator uses a design that operates on air pressure without the need for electricity, addressing the needs of most COVID-19 patients. GE Healthcare and Ford consulted with medical experts in determining the Airon-licensed Model A-E ventilator is well suited for COVID-19 patient care. The ventilator is designed for quick setup, making it easy for healthcare workers to use – and can be deployed in an emergency room setting, during special procedures or in an intensive care unit, wherever the patient may be located.

The Airon-licensed Model A-E ventilator is the second Ford-GE Healthcare ventilator collaboration. Last week, Ford and GE Healthcare announced a separate effort to produce a simplified ventilator design from GE Healthcare to help address the surging demand for ventilators in the U.S. Hogan Lovells is also advising on this collaboration.

More details about the companies' combined efforts can be found in their press release here.

Kraft Group/New England Patriots

The firm represented the Kraft Group/New England Patriots on a pro bono effort to obtain the necessary government approvals to pick up 1.7 million N95 masks from Shenzhen, China, and deliver them to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts using the Patriots' team plane.

"We are extremely gratified to have helped with this humanitarian mission to bring urgently needed masks to Massachusetts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic," said Hogan Lovells partner Amy Roma, who led the firm's cross-practice pro bono team, with the critical support of Roy Zou, Managing Partner of the Hogan Lovells Beijing office. "We would also like to thank Ambassador Huang Ping, the Consular General for the PRC in New York, for his extraordinary efforts in securing the necessary Chinese government approvals and issuing the required visas for the flight crew on short notice, as well as the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy in Beijing for their invaluable support for this mission."

Hogan Lovells navigated the complex array of authorizations and inter-governmental support requests in the United States and China for the masks to be picked up in Shenzhen on April 1. The masks cleared U.S. Customs in Alaska the same day and will arrive in Massachusetts on Thursday. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the arrival of the shipment today. 

Additionally, 300,000 of the masks were purchased by Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group, to be donated to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state of New York. They are scheduled to be delivered to New York City on Friday morning.

The mission was complicated further by the urgent timing of the trip and the shifting landscape of U.S. and Chinese laws governing shipments of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE.   

In addition to the U.S. and Chinese authorizations for the trip, Hogan Lovells also advised on FDA and Customs matters to ensure that the masks would quickly clear Customs upon their arrival.

"Hogan Lovells was an absolutely invaluable member of our team effort in this humanitarian mission," said Robert Kraft. "Supply chains around the world are shut down and bottlenecked with bureaucracy, fear and in some instances, commercial priorities over human. Hogan Lovells tore through the bureaucracy with their knowledge and skill around international trade and truly worked 24/7 to make sure this mission was accomplished. I am so thankful for their work in supporting the front-line defenders of the public's health and safety in the two places I most love, Massachusetts and New York. I am very grateful to everyone at Hogan Lovells, as well as Ambassador Huang Ping and the numerous other organizations involved, for their amazing work on this mission. We could not have done it without them."

In addition to Roma, Hogan Lovells' Washington team included partners Ajay Kuntamukkala, Jonathan Stoel, and Mike Heyl, and Senior Counsel Norm Coleman. They were assisted by partner T. Clark Weymouth, who leads the firm's pro bono practice, associate Jane Chen, and paralegal Danni Wang.

The Asia team included Zou and registered foreign lawyer Ben Kostrzewa in Hong Kong.

More details about this effort can be found in the Wall Street Journal story here.

SOURCE Hogan Lovells