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NCL, BEL To Produce Medical
Devices For Tackling Pandemic
Mass manufacturing ready hardware and software
design will be available to manufacturers across India for free
CSIR’s constituent Lab, CSIR-National Chemical
Laboratory (NCL) Pune, has been leading the way in promoting innovation and
entrepreneurship through its Venture Centre for the past decade and new
innovations from there are helping in fight against the Corona outbreak.
Two of the recent innovations that can help in the
mitigation of the Corona outbreak are featured:
Digital IR Thermometer: CSIR-NCL’s Venture Centre’s
incubatee BMEK headed by Pratik Kulkarni has developed hand held digital IR
thermometer which is an important component of measures to mitigate Coronavirus
outbreak. Mobile phone or power banks can be used as a power source. The design
of IR thermometers is available open source where in the complete know-how with
mass manufacturing ready hardware and software design will be available to
manufacturers across India for free. This is an effort to enable a large number
of manufacturers to manufacture the thermometers and cater to their local
demands. Now it is being scaled up in partnership with BEL (Bharat Electronics
Ltd, Pune).
About 100 prototype units will be made for pilot
distribution and testing at TUV Rheinland India Pvt Ltd Bangalore.
Oxygen enrichment unit (OEU): One of the critical
needs of COVID-19 patients is the need to meet the oxygen requirements due to
their lungs being compromised. Oxygen enrichment unit (OEUs) to increase the
oxygen concentration from the ambient air of 21-22% to 38-40% have been
developed by CSIR-NCL and Genrich Membranes, a start-up innovation venture
founded by Dr. Ulhas Kharul, Head of Polymer Science & Engineering Divsion at
NCL. OEU is hollow fiber membrane bundles for separation and filtration of
ambient air to produce enriched oxygen for patients in home and hospital
settings. The prototype units are ready at Pune and will be sent to TUV
Rheinland India Pvt Ltd Bangalore for testing/validation. About 10 OEU machines
will be assembled by NCL, BEL in Pune and after the trials, scale up will be
done.
https://www.biospectrumindia.com/news/74/16184/ncl-bel-toproduce-medical-devices-for-tackling-pandemic.html
Gujarat FDA Issues Licenses To
12 More Oxygen Manufacturers To Produce Medical Oxygen To Cater To COVID-19
patients
The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA)
has issued licenses to 12 more oxygen manufacturers during the lockdown period
to produce medical oxygen to cater to COVID-19 patients. As of today, the state
has 45 medical oxygen manufacturers catering to over 66 hospitals in the state.
It had 33 manufacturers before the outbreak of COVID-19.
According to official data, Gujarat state has a
total capacity of 22,689 medical oxygen cylinders per day against the
requirement of 7009 cylinders. The state has availability of 5,22,830 cubic
metres oxygen against the requirement of 62,860 cubic metres oxygen. “As of
today, Gujarat has surplus medical oxygen and is fully equipped to cater to
emergency situations. Medical oxygen is life saver for COVID-19 patients and
requirement also varies as per the medical condition of the patient,” explained
Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia. Dr Koshia has been appointed by the
state government as the nodal officer to coordinate on the availability of
medical oxygen with the hospitals, Union health ministry and medical oxygen
manufacturers of the state. Supplemental oxygen therapy is a part of the
clinical management of COVID-19. It is the use of oxygen as a medical treatment.
This also includes supplementing oxygen for low blood oxygen, carbon monoxide
toxicity, cluster headaches and to maintain enough oxygen
while inhaled anesthetics are given.
He further added that all healthcare institutions
in the state of Gujarat are complying with essential commodities act and not
charging anything on medical oxygen.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had
earlier directed state licensing authorities (SLAs) to urgently grant permission
to manufacturers of industrial oxygen to manufacture medical oxygen in the light
of COVID-19 outbreak.
All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers’
Association (AIIGMA) had proposed to the DCGI to allow manufacturers of
industrial oxygen to manufacture oxygen for medical use. As per the DCGI
directive to SLAs, it has been decided in public interest that the premises
which are having facility to manufacture industrial oxygen should be granted
manufacturing license to manufacture oxygen for medical use within 24 hours of
the submission of application and fees as per the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act.
“An undertaking needs to be furnished in writing to manufacture medical
oxygen in compliance with standards prescribed in Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) and
labeling requirement as per the D&C Act and Rules. SLAs are requested to take
action in public interest to grant permission to manufacturers of industrial
oxygen to manufacture oxygen for medical use in light of COVID-19,” DCGI had
directed.
Oxygen therapy is the single most effective
supportive measure in COVID-19 patients. Children with emergency signs
(obstructed or absent breathing, severe respiratory distress, central cyanosis,
shock, coma or convulsions) should receive oxygen therapy during resuscitation.
http://pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=128918&sid=1
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