By Srinath Srinivasan
Bengaluru-based Organization De Scalene has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and the European Union to licence and manufacture Scalene Hypercharge Corona Canon (Shycocan), a device that has the ability to neutralise 99.9% of the coronavirus that might be floating in the air in closed spaces. It can be used to prevent infection and is not medicine or an alternative to a vaccine that can cure infected people.
Designed by a team led by Dr Rajah Vijay Kumar, who had earlier designed Cytotron, a machine to treat cancer more effectively, it does not emit any harmful radiation. “Everyone, including the middle class will be able to afford this device. It will be priced cheaper than a smartphone and will be launched at the stroke of midnight on August 15,” said Kumar
The device is effective in closed spaces of up to 1,000 sq ft or in places up to 10,000 cubic metres, such as waiting rooms, offices, malls and other public areas. “It will also be effective in congested places and will bring down transmission drastically,” Kumar said.
The device emits photons, which then collide with air particles to emit electrons that neutralise the Spike-protein or S-protein in coronavirus and was designed to mitigate common cold and flu at Scalene’s campus much before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. “The virus gets neutralised even before it enters the human body. So an individual does not get infected. Since this is light we are talking about, the process is almost instantaneous,” explained Kumar.
At the moment, the USFDA has given humanitarian licenses to manufacturers and in India, about seven manufacturers have signed up to make the device. “The USFDA and the European union have their own standards and they have put the device through over 26 tests in some of the top labs of their region,”he said. “Currently there are no competitors to this product,” Kumar observed.
