Pentagon taps Zoll Medical for $400M contract to provide vital signs monitors

The $400 million is the maximum amount for the deal that has a one-year base contract with 5 one-year option periods. The contract was a competitive acquisition with three responses received, the Pentagon said in a press release.

Few additional details were provided in the release by the military.

Zoll develops and markets medical devices and software for emergency care services. The company's products include defibrillation and monitoring, circulation and CPR feedback, data management, therapeutic temperature management, and ventilation. Its primary customers include EMS and fire professionals, and lay rescuers who are typically first responders for victims needing resuscitation and acute critical care.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Asahi Kasei of Japan, which bought Zoll in 2012 for about $2.21 billion.

Zoll was founded by Dr. Paul Zoll, who was the first physician to show that external electrical stimulation of a patient's chest during cardiac arrest could produce an effective heartbeat, and was the first doctor to successfully use external defibrillation to regulate heart rhythms in patients.

(FierceBiotech, June 30, 2016)