Bengaluru-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms’ (C-CAMP) Covid-19 Innovations Deployment Accelerator or C-CIDA has shortlisted five innovations that have solutions with high potential to combat the virus.
The five companies are CoSara Diagnostics Pvt Ltd and Ampligene Diagnostics Pvt Ltd for rapid diagnostics; Coeo Labs and Avyantra for assisted respiratory devices; and Anabio Technologies Pvt Ltd for preventatives.
“In the first week of evaluation, five innovations with more soon to come, from a pool of over 460 ideas received over the last one week. C-CIDA will now connect these five start-up companies with industry partners as well as government agencies for scaling and deployment ,” said Taslimarif Saiyed, C-CAMP CEO and Director.
“Depending on the specific needs of each individual company, in play are pilot testing, fast-track regulatory clearance, CSR funding support, investments and industry scale-up geared towards quick deployment,” he added.
C-CIDA, a Covid-19 focused accelerator launched by C-CAMP on March 26, has partners like United Nations Health Innovation Exchange (UNHIE), Social Alpha, India2022 Xynteo, MedTechConnect, India Health Fund, AIC-CCMB and CCMB.
Key areas
The five companies are addressing key areas in checking the Covid-19 pandemic including — Enhanced testing capabilities through low-cost, easy-to-use, rapid and accurate diagnostics technologies with minimised chances for false positives. This is of paramount importance for ramping up mass-testing as underlined by Covid-19 trajectory in South Korea.
Preventative technologies that are a step above current sanitising techniques and with higher staying power. Protective gear like N95 masks, sanitised hospital linen, PPE grade outerwear are in low-supply the world over. This is an affordable technology that can quickly turn a mask and also any normal cotton cloth into an effective virus-blocker, could be a positive gamechanger.
Increased options for assisted ventilation through both invasive and non-invasive respirators for critically ill Covid-19 patients. Intubated support, reports suggest, may not be necessary in all cases with respiratory distress. CPAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines have the capacity and have been approved by USFDA, to be used in case of non-availability of ventilators. This strategy could be significant in current times.
If and when community transmission sets in in India, reports say that in a worst case scenario we may have 2.2 million cases with an estimated 5-10 per cent of total patients requiring ICU and critical care in form of ventilator support. Having a maximum of about 57,000 ventilators at our disposal, Indian healthcare system will need an urgent supply of ventilators and even more importantly proper triaging to identify patients who need the support most.
With low-cost CPAP machines at hand, clinicians will be better equipped to allot resources optimally saving more lives.