Eight US Manufacturers Selected to Make NASA COVID-19 Ventilator
A host of international companies will be evaluated next for the free license granted by Caltech.
After receiving more than 100 applications, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has selected eight U.S.
manufacturers to make a new ventilator tailored for coronavirus (COVID-19)
patients.
The prototype, which was created by JPL
engineers in just 37 days, received an Emergency Use
Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on April 30.
Called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally),
the high-pressure ventilator was designed to
use one-seventh the parts of a traditional ventilator, relying on parts already
available in supply chains. It offers a simpler, more affordable option for
treating critical patients while freeing up traditional ventilators for those
with the most severe COVID-19 symptoms. Its flexible design means it also can
be modified for use in field hospitals.
The Office of Technology
Transfer and Corporate Partnerships at Caltech, which owns the patents and
software for VITAL, is offering a free license for the device. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA.
The U.S. companies selected for
licenses are:
- Vacumed,
a division of Vacumetrics, Inc. in Ventura, California
- Stark Industries, LLC in
Columbus, Ohio
- MVent,
LLC, a division of Minnetronix Medical, in St. Paul, Minnesota
- iButtonLink,
LLC in Whitewater, Wisconsin
- Evo Design, LLC in Watertown, Connecticut
- DesignPlex
Biomedical, LLC in Fort Worth, Texas
- ATRON Group LLC in
Dallas
- Pro-Dex, Inc. in Irvine,
California
"The VITAL team is very
excited to see their technology licensed," said Leon Alkalai, manager of
the JPL Office of Strategic Partnerships and a member of the VITAL leadership
team. "Our hope is to have this technology reach across the world and
provide an additional source of solutions to deal with the on-going COVID-19
crisis."
JPL now is evaluating
international manufacturers from countries including Brazil, Mexico, India and
Malaysia. A full list of approved manufacturers is available here.
VITAL was developed with input
from doctors and medical device manufacturers. 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.
"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."
The compressed-air design also
has been submitted to the FDA for a ventilator Emergency Use Authorization and
is currently under review.
For more information about
NASA's work in fighting COVID-19, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/coronavirus
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