We’re the Oxygen CoLab
We exist to help build thriving, self-reliant oxygen markets that work for patients
Oxygen is an essential medicine, critical for treating a range of conditions: pneumonia, preterm birth, postpartum haemorrhage, COPD, TB, surgical care, and many more. It's needed across all levels of the health system. Yet, there are huge inequities worldwide in who has access to this critical care when they need it.
Despite a decade of investments in oxygen production, and a deadly pandemic, most of the world’s population still don’t have access to safe, quality, and affordable medical oxygen services.
The Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security states - “The coverage gap for medical oxygen in LMICs is thus 70%, which far exceeds those for HIV/AIDS (23%) and tuberculosis (25%) treatments.”
At the Oxygen CoLab, we are strengthening local small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who can effectively operate, maintain, and scale oxygen equipment & services at scale – whilst incentivising investments in their long-term sustainability from governments and private sector.
Latest from us
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| LIVE |
Into the world of local actors getting medical oxygen to the people who need it most
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| MAY 2025 |
Follow along as we build the market for medical oxygen services, delivered by SMEs
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| FEB 2025 |
Reflections on the Lancet Global Health Commission’s report on medical oxygen security
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| NOV 2024 |
Eight strides towards increased access to medical oxygen access in low-resource settings
We're building the Missing Middle
Major progress has been made toward scaling up oxygen production in LMICs over the last decade - by engaging industrial gas suppliers and investing in public-sector-owned PSA plants. But the reality is that production alone doesn't guarantee access for patients.
The problem
Oxygen is produced, but it’s not reliably delivered to patients
Industrial gas producers
Publicly owned PSA plant
Health Facilities
Industrial gas producers
Industrial gas producers can make oxygen efficiently, but their businesses are built to deliver to large, centralised industrial customers - not smaller, distributed health-sector clients.
Publicly-owned PSA plants
Public-sector health facilities can struggle to run PSA plants on their own without adequate operational and maintenance capacity. Therefore, these plants are often underutilised or can become costly neglected assets.
Our solution
Local oxygen SMEs that connect production to patients
We are supporting the growth of a dedicated layer of health-focused oxygen SMEs who can fill - the “Missing Middle'“. This “Missing Middle” is essential to move from fragmented, unreliable delivery systems to high-performing, sustainable oxygen markets that reliably serve patients.
These SMEs: aggregate small facility demand into viable volumes for large producers, translate industrial supply into health-ready solutions, operate public assets professionally with bundled services (training, equipment, logistics), and introduce needed competition beyond the few large industrial players, align incentives with health outcomes, not just production margins
Industrial gas producers
Private Healthcare SMEs
Publicly-owned PSA plants
Health Facilities
How we're building the Missing Middle
Scaling local oxygen SMEs
Helping local oxygen SMEs develop oxygen services that are affordable, reliable, sustainable & scalable.
Building a global tech pipeline
Investing in tech that reduces costs and improve the efficiency of oxygen service-based models.
Bringing an evidence base to the sector
Evaluating impact and informing action through growing and disseminating evidence.
The impact we've made
100%
Supported O2aaS* SMEs to achieve 100% uptime, drive over 50% increases in oxygen use and lower costs by up to 70%
22:1
Achieved 22:1 co-investment into R&D of fit-for-purpose oxygen concentrators
*O2aaS -> Oxygen-as-a-Service
49%
49% drop in child mortality from hypoxemia due to O2aaS* SME intervention across 20 facilities in Uganda
10
Developed robust evidence on the performance of 10 oxygen concentrators and 5 O2aaS* models
Where we've come from
In 2020, when the global oxygen gap became impossible to ignore, UK International Development launched the Oxygen CoLab to tackle systemic barriers to medical oxygen access. Our goal is to reduce the number of preventable deaths due to a lack of access to medical oxygen.
Our work has evolved in line with what we have learnt about what does and doesn’t work, and what emerges to be the next most pressing opportunity to invest in. This has taken us from designing market incentives to foster development and purchasing of fit-for-purpose oxygen concentrators, to piloting O2aaS models, and supporting their uptake and scale with governments, innovators and academia.
Stay in touch
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Every other month, we deliver all the latest directly to your inbox. You’ll find updates from grantees and the wider medical oxygen ecosystem, invitations to join us at global health events, opportunities to get involved, and more, in our Newsletter - Breathing Room