NASA respirator will be produced and marketed in Brazil

Developed by NASA engineers, the respirator "VIDA" will also be produced in Brazil.
The medical equipment company Russer, from Indaiatuba (SP), received on the last day 17 the approval of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to commercialize the product, essential for the operation of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) that receive patients from covid-19.
The demand for respirators exploded during the pandemic. At the beginning of the year, the SUS had about 45,000 of these equipment. The federal government bought another 10, 000.
Designed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the U.S. space agency, VIDA underwent adaptations at the National Industrial Learning Service (SENAI-Cimatec), in Salvador, for about two and a half months.
The U.S. agency released the respirator patent during the pandemic. NASA also made a public call to license the technology, which attracted the interest of 331 companies, 30 of them from Brazil. Of these, 28 - nine of them from the United States and two from Brazil (SENAI-Cimatec and Russer) were selected.
The first batch produced in Brazil should be 300 respirators. Each will cost R$ 59,000.
The federal government, states and municipalities had difficulty finding respirators during the pandemic. The worldwide race for the product caused public purchases to be cancelled.
The Ministry of Health even canceled a R$ 1 billion deal with a macau company in China to import 15,000 units - the money was not released.
After the failed attempt, the country became dependent on the capacity of the national industry, which made a task force to increase the number of respirators manufactured.