As India’s public health crumbles during the pandemic, shortage of oxygen cylinders and ventilators has led to more Covid-19 deaths in India. ACT Grants, a 100 crore grant set up by India’s VC and start-up community, has supported InnAccel Technologies to indigenously develop oxygen devices called HFNCs (High Flow Nasal Cannula)/CPAP devices. These devices are deployed for severe coronavirus cases that account for 3-6% of total cases.
Oxygen therapy is used for patients in the mild or moderate phases of the disease through oxygen facemasks. Oxygen therapy is the recommended immediate treatment for patients suffering from respiratory distress and other diseases on similar lines.
According to WHO, approximately 15% of the entire patient pool are victims of moderate to severe disease and for them, hospitalization and oxygen support is the only treatment available to sustain lives. Moreover, 5% of patients who succumbed to the virus needed to be admitted to the ICU and other supportive techniques like intubation and ventilation should be employed for successful treatment.
RavijotChugh, a spokesperson from ACT Grants says that the oxygen therapy segment under ACT Grants has two focus areas including, Low Flow and High Flow. The low flow segment covers the requirement of low flow oxygen solutions via Oxygen concentrators and cylinders for moderately symptomatic patients which adds up to 80% of the patient pool.
The high flow segment – HFNC (High Flow Nasal Cannula)/CPAP devices are deployed for severe cases which account for 3-6% of Covidpatients. Both these functions are available in the COVID Care Centres and Hospital wards, he adds.
ACT provided a grant of INR 4.5 crores to InnAccel Technologies, a MedTech company started in 2012, to develop a high flow oxygen therapy device with a CPAP helmet interface.
InnAccel Technologies builds novel medical devices designed, engineered, and priced for Global Emerging Markets. Stanford Biodesign method is used to identify and validate critical unmet clinical needs in India. Using proprietary Product Engineering and Development Platform, a conceptual solution is designed to address a selected need, leading to the development of a regulatory certified product.
SirajDhanani, Founder of the company, says that the solutions curated to combat COVID-19 include VapCare for management of critically ill COVID-19 patients and Saans Pro: Non-invasive ventilation for COVID-19 patients.
The devices have been built indigenously and as a result, their prices are 2/3rd of those of imported ones. The company has received orders from states and hospitals across the country.
Dhanani says these devices will help save 30 per cent lives if administered properly as, he suggests, these devices come in handy in times of non-availability of ventilators, ICU beds, and medical staff.
The company is shipping the first batch of 400 devices and ramping up its production capacity from November onwards, he adds.
With ACT Grants, more than1000 Cylindershave been supplied so far across Delhi, Bihar, Bengaluru, Pune and Haryana in the Low flow segment and nearly 100 high flow oxygen therapy devices have been deployed in Maharashtra, Karnataka Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Haryana through InnAccel and other prominent global device manufacturers like Fischer &Paykel.
ACT Grants has also supported two other companies called Max Ventilators and Nocca Robotics in this space and helped them build their production capacity for ventilators.
ACT intends to deploy an additional 500 high flow therapy devices across multiple states going forward. ACT is also helping other Indian companies BioDesign Labs and Nocca Robotics organise trials for their HFNC devices and will provide further grants to increase their production capacity.
ACT stands for ‘Action Covid-19 Team’ and supports teams and start-ups in the areas of prevention of COVID-19 spread, scaling testing, disease management at home, enhanced support for healthcare workers and hospitals, management of critically ill patients and support for mental health. ACT Grants’ mission is to seed and empower teams that are harnessing technology to create large scale impact in the detection, prevention, and eradication of Covid-19.
The pandemic has already penetrated small towns and villages that have poor health facilities and limited oxygen supply. ACT Grants stepped to support the system and help combat the pandemic. ACT Grants is an INR 100 crore grant created by India’s VC and start-up community to provide stimulus to ideas that could combat COVID-19 with immediate impact.
ACT is also designing playbooks, an infographic guide towards various tracks of ACT Grants which give information on solutions to adopt to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
The playbooks can also be viewed here – https://actgrants.in/act-resources
