Three Indian companies procure license to make NASA ventilators for COVID-19 patients

Three Indian companies have procured licenses from NASA to produce its indigenously developed ventilators for critical COVID-19 patients,PTI reports.The companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, the space organization said in a statement on Friday.

Along with India, 18 companies from the US and Brazil have gained the rest of the orders.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing the ventilator particularly for coronavirus patients at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP) in Southern California, the report said.

The ventilator called VITAL which was developed by JPL engineers with in a month of time had gained ‘Emergency Use Authorization’ from the Food and Drug Administration on April 30,the report said.

“The VITAL team is very excited to see their technology licenced,” said Leon Alkalai, manager of the JPL Office of Strategic Partnerships.A prototype of the JPL device was successfully tested by the Human Simulation Lab in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Mount Sinai on April 23.

A modified design, which uses compressed air and can be deployed by a greater range of hospitals, was recently tested at the UCLA Simulation Center in Los Angeles.A high-fidelity lung simulator tested almost 20 different ventilator settings, representing a number of scenarios that could be seen in critically ill patients in an intensive care unit, it said.

“VITAL performed well in simulation testing with both precise and reproducible results,” said Dr Tisha Wang, clinical chief of the UCLA Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

“In addition, the setup and operation of the ventilator was quick and user-friendly. The UCLA team commends JPL for actively contributing to the COVID-19 response and successfully addressing one of the key medical needs in the sickest group of patients,” a media statement said,PTI said.