There is a COVID-19 ventilator designed by NASA and a Brazil partnership is about to begin production

The COVID-19 global health crisis may be far from over, but with so many people and organizations looking for solutions at every possible side and angle, the world is given hope.

Some time in late April, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the development of Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally (VITAL), a ventilator designed specifically to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), with spacecraft engineers using their know-how to address the pandemic by creating two versions of VITAL: a pneumatic version and another using compressed air.

Both versions only need 1/7 the parts of a traditional ventilator. Both are simpler to build than a traditional ventilator, and both are more affordable. 

Since the late April announcement, 28 manufacturers from around the world were given license to make the device, and according to JPL's website, "one of those licensees is preparing to begin production in Brazil."

According to JPL, Brazil's equivalent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Anvisa, announced approval of this effort in a press conference Monday. The licensee is "a joint partnership between Russer, a medical device manufacturer and CIMATEC (Manufacturing and Technology Integrated Campus), a nonprofit research and development institution."

JPL reports that the Brazilian partnership is creating a version based on the pneumatic version, "using a pneumatic pump to circulate air into the ventilator and was run though a battery of tests by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City." 

According to Leon Alkalai, manger of the JPL Office of Strategic Partnerships and VITAL project manager, the Brazilian licensees "were able to replicate our prototype design, upgrade it where necessary, and also obtain local regulatory approval. They did so in record time and we are truly impressed with how quickly they were able to master the art and even improve on the design."

The Russer/CIMATEC will be called VIDA, or life in Portuguese.

Meanwhile, JPL reports that "several other manufacturers around the world are far along in their own efforts to bring to market a version of the ventilator, with JPL providing technical guidance." — LA, GMA News