The Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT) recently announced its latest entrepreneurial entity, USafe Healthcare.

An innovation-driven enterprise, currently focused on protective equipment against Covid-19, USafe has developed and commercialized the world’s most affordable respirator mask that is highly durable and adheres to the highest safety standards for operating in hazardous environments. The cost of the mask is Rs 13/day.

With a vision to provide high-quality protection, especially in the healthcare industry and its frontline workers, USafe’s US9 respirator mask has a 98.03 per cent PM0.3 filtration rate and 99.7 per cent bacterial filtration rate (better than N95 standards).

Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary to Telangana government commented on the launch, “This is yet another significant contribution from IIT Hyderabad and the state of Telangana towards fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The Innovation of reusability in US9 Respirator Mask not only reduces the recurring cost but also drastically decreases the biowaste generated due to protective masks. I congratulate the entrepreneurs backing this product and proving that the state of Telangana offers a conducive ecosystem for healthcare innovation.”

The home-grown innovation in tune with the Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat aspirations, US9 respirator mask, has been designed, developed and produced in collaboration with IIT-Hyderabad under the mentorship of Prof Surya Kumar and Prof Renu John.