Read up more on Mission Oxygen on our website here.

Mission Oxygen started out as a crowdfunding campaign to source 500 Oxygen Concentrators on Friday, 23rd April, 2021. We were possibly one of the first to setup a large scale campaign to get contributions to source donations, to get supply of oxygen concentrators for hospitals. As on date (4 May, 2021) we have raised over INR 30 Crores (~USD 4 million) and have placed orders for 6000 Oxygen concentrators. As the need for Mission Oxygen is far bigger than our team and the work we are doing, we are sharing a playbook that we hope helps others to replicate or improve upon what we have done and help India achieve its ultimate goal of defeating this COVID wave.

Disclaimer: This playbook will remain a work in progress as things are changing dynamically everyday. We will try to keep it as up to date as possible.

There are 5 basic things one needs to focus on -

1. Fundraising and PR
2. Supply
   1. Finding a Manufacturer
   2. Identifying genuine vs fake sources
   3. Reviewing regulatory documentation
3. Logistics
   1. Making sure manufacturer has all the necessary paperwork
   2. Identifying closest port of discharge
   3. Working with local Freight forwarders vs Logistics companies
   4. PAN india logistics once shipments arrive
   5. Customs clearances
4. Demand
   1. Hospital list and requirements
5. Legal and Regulatory
   1. Indemnity waiver
   2. List of hospitals which have received devices for reverse pickup if required

Supply

• Tech specs

  • If you're providing to hospitals you need machines that have a maximum flow rate of 8-10 Litres/min.
  • Other key requirements you need to keep in mind for the products:
    • 220-240V/50-60hz Indian plug (critical because issues around this can be a heating and thus a fire hazard. With O2 in the mix - can be catastrophic).
    • CE certificate from notified body
    • ISO 13485 certificate from notified body
    • Free sale certificate
    • IEC 60601 and IEC 61326 reports
    • Do NOT get the ones that say 30-90% +/- 3%. (THis means that at full flow they may give only 30% purity - which is barely anything because regular air is 21% O2 anyway)
    • Ideal is 93% +/- 3%. It is also okay to use 90% +/-3% ones.

• Trusted people who can help with supply sourcing an contacts: (I will add their phone numbers after consent)

  • Aditya - http://twitter.com/reachaditya
  • Prakhar - https://twitter.com/prakharkhanduja
  • Pranay - https://twitter.com/utekkare/status/1386317933819817985 can help (he can seemingly help transport it also)?
  • I have made a whatsapp group which has multiple folks who can help with supply and sources; along with people looking for supply. ping me if you want to be added to it. wa.me/+919769003072

• Some vendors in China

  • Check out a bunch of supply leads here:

  Oxygen concentrator supply leads

• China sourcing

  • Get some QA / QC done in China itself in the factory. See if you can have a doctor in India on video call to see the devices & confirm all good

• Miscellaneous

  • Ask the vendors to give extra masks / cannulas if they can. Often times - they are in short supply rendering the OC unusable anyway

  • Insist that the vendors give you manuals / training material in English as well.

  • Make a video of unboxing and setting up one of the devices - which can be in Hindi / vernaculars and act as a training video for any hospitals / NGOs you send the devices to

  • WHO guidelines on OCs:

    Oxygen concentrator Specifications 10L vs 5L.pdf

• From what I've seen - good 10L machines will cost anywhere between 500-700$ (FOB) (i.e. at China). Logistics etc. will add up for the net cost to be INR 60k +/- landed in India.

Demand

• I would request to not create a different form - but use the same one we had maybe - so it ensures demand stays as centralised as possible (?). https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxhkkaV8doaECCb69paDAfnRUisjtWL7hwmd4jiw7RdpZbFg/viewform
• Here is a sheet which has the responses from the form we had circulated, where hospitals have entered in their demand quantities. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14lwfZOsxw8QxMJW5UpAkdGU811M3vtIcXe2TjKc9d3s/edit#gid=1796436121
• Ensure you call and confirm requirement right before delivery again even if you procured them keeping in that hospital in mind. With multiple efforts going on - someone else may fill requirements you had intended to.