Sinergia Labs part of a global project on low-cost ventilators

Sinergia Media Labs (Simelabs) on Monday said it is part of a consortium that has tied up with a US-based not-for-profit organization to launch an affordable ventilator, aiming to strengthen the global fight against Covid-19.

Kochi-based Sinergia, along with Ionics3DP (Chennai) and Aruvii (Singapore), has tied up with the Project Prana Foundation of Massachusetts for a low-cost emergency device capable of ventilating two subjects simultaneously. The innovative system, with a Prana-developed solution called iSAVE, won validity recently, as per a publication in top weekly magazine Science Translational Medicine.

The three-firm consortium has completed functional prototypes of their designs for BVM-based emergency resuscitator INDVENTR-100 besides INDVENTR-200, a feature-rich pneumatic design that addresses an affordable range of cost and capability points.

“INDVENTR-100 is priced low. As an ambu bag-based respirator, it offers multiple ventilation schemes,” said Sinergia CEO Derrick Sebastian, revealing that the device, which works on mandatory as well as spontaneous modes, is based on a design by MIT of America. This frugal solution costs less than Rs 20,000, he added.

Silji Abraham, an advisor of the IndVentr consortium, describes iSAVE as a carefully-designed and thoroughly-tested ventilator-sharing platform. “It can quickly scale up the ventilator infrastructure around the world which is currently under heavy challenge by the coronavirus epidemic,” he substantiates.

Project Prana Foundation President Shriya Srinivasan says her organization and the consortium will offer both low-cost ventilators and multiplexing systems to markets in India and neighbouring countries.