K-One secures licence to manufacture low-cost ventilators for use in Covid-19 treatment

K-One Technology Bhd has been awarded a licence to manufacture and distribute low-cost breathing ventilators developed by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL) for use by Covid-19 patients, it said today.

This comes less than two months after it announced a plan to venture into the conventional ventilator market, as part of its plan to expand its portfolio.

The non-exclusive licence announced today was awarded by NASA JPL via the California Institute of Technology, K-One said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia. Nasa JPL is a US federal funded research and development centre managed for NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) by Caltech.

The ventilator is dubbed VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) ventilator, which is low-cost and uses fewer parts — all of which are easily available from the market. The ventilator is approved for use in the US by the Food & Drug Administration.

The licence agreement lasts up until Oct 1, 2024 or until the World Health Organisation lifts the public health emergency status, it added.

“The licence is royalty-free, world-wide applicable to the technology and patent rights to use, make, have made, manufacture, have manufactured, sell, have sold and import ventilators in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The licensee i.e. K-One is free to use, share, distribute, and make available to others, copy, modify and build upon the technology for the purpose during the licence term,” it said.

In April, K-One said it had obtained the open source design files of the conventional model made by a multinational company, and had targeted the prototype to be completed in 3Q20.

This VITAL ventilator, however, is not related to the prototype, K-One said today.

Shares of K-One jumped 12.5 sen or 39.06% today to close at 44.5 sen, valuing the electronic product manufacturer at RM324.38 million.

The counter — the most actively traded today — saw 580.6 million shares exchanging hands, 58 times its 200-day average of 10 million shares.

The company’s share price has more than doubled from the 20 sen it was trading at on Dec 31, 2019.

Source: The Edge Markets