Science and technology firm Battelle said its CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS) would decontaminate N95 respirator masks at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island.
The effort would protect frontline healthcare workers by decontaminating up to 80,000 masks per day by the end of the week to address the city’s shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed by healthcare workers and first responders.
The CCDS process deploys concentrated, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide (VPHP) and exposes used respirator masks to the validated concentration level for 2.5 hours to decontaminate biological contaminates, including SARS-CoV-2.
“The Battelle team has been working around the clock for several weeks to build, test and get approval for this system so that we can mobilize to the areas of the country that need it the most, and clearly New York City is at the top of that list,” Matt Vaughan, Battelle’s Contract Research president, said.
Battelle operates Biosafety Level 2 and 3 labs where research is performed on live viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, officials said, adding the company has also formed a full medical device development team working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regularly.
Battelle’s CCDS is based on research the company executed for the FDA in 2015 to assess the feasibility to decontaminate N95 respirator masks in the event of a PPE shortage resulting from a pandemic.