Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Redesigning Hand Sanitizer and Donating 7,000 Gallons to Fight Covid-19

By Ben Brumfield
Jun 26, 2020 1:25 PM ET
Campaign: Duckprints in the Community
Here, many participants in the effort that re-made hand sanitizer using fuel-grade ethanol on its first day of delivery. The volunteers will donate 7,000 gallons of Han-I-Size White and Gold to hospitals and nursing homes across the country. In front, Dr. Chaouki Abdallah, Executive Vice President for Research, congratulates the group on its success. Image courtesy Georgia Tech News Center website

Originally published on Georgia Tech News Center

The Georgia Tech team garnered funding through a donation from insurer Aflac Incorporated allocated through the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), a Georgia Tech affiliated non-profit organization that guides new experimental medical solutions to market. Aflac’s gift of $2 million through GCMI has also expedited the development, production, and purchase of other PPE to donate to health care workers.

In addition, GCMI helped guide the hand sanitizer through regulatory processes and to market. In a another development, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was also aware of the dire shortage of alcohol for sanitizer and issued waivers for the pandemic to allow for use of ethanol in sanitizers without having to meet usual specifications.

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