While the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the horrors that can occur with a lack of medical oxygen, there was no independent analysis on access to oxygen. On 17 February 2025, the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, released a report 2.5 years in the making, called Reducing Global Health Inequities in Medical Oxygen Access. This 57-page report provides the world’s first estimates of the large scale and inequitable distribution of medical oxygen coverage gaps and the cost of closing the gaps.

Key Findings:

• 2 million people need long-term oxygen due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with 6.2 million living in low and middle income countries [table on page 9]
• 4 million people need oxygen for acute medical conditions with 87.1 million living in low and middle income countries [table on page 9]
• 6 out of 10 people in the world (5 billion people) lack access to safe, quality, and affordable medical oxygen, with the vast majority in low and middle income countries
• Investing in improving access to medical oxygen is highly cost effective, equivalent to similar investments in childhood vaccines (US$59 per DALY averted) [page 13]

The report continues on to review the different methods of oxygen generation, particularly highlighting the risks of PSA plants:

“However, the promise of PSA plants has fallen short for many reasons, including the lack of appropriate infrastructure at facilities for them to be installed, insufficient biomedical engineering capacity to install, run, and maintain the plants, high energy requirements and a lack of public policies around energy pricing, making plants too expensive to run, and confusion surrounding ownership and responsibility for maintenance.” [Panel 12, page 34]

Oxygen concentrators are essential to filling the access oxygen gap where it is the widest in primary and rural health facilities. The PulmO2, 10L next generation of oxygen concentrator, fit for purpose worldwide, is highlighted as the only oxygen concentrator designed and proven to meet the UNICEF target product profile for a more robust oxygen concentrator. [page 25]

As such, the PulmO2 is a key innovation that could have a significant impact on increasing access to oxygen. It is highlighted as an example of one of just 20 priority areas for innovation. Read about all of these 20 areas in this Policy Brief.

A person who survived severe COVID-19 in Kenya said:

“There is a need for global solidarity to ensure that everyone who needs oxygen regardless of where they come from is able to get it in a timely manner that saves lives.”

The collaboration between Sanrai and Drive DeVilbiss resulting in the PulmO2 is our way to ensure that every patient who needs oxygen, no matter where they live, has access to world class, medical grade, safe, and high-quality oxygen.