A new draft guidance for organ procurement organizations doing business in the U.S. would seem to tackle some pressing issues with organ donation, such as the conditions in which a problem qualifies as an adverse event. Perhaps of greater interest to companies in the organ container business is that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is intent on increasing the availability of organ donations to deal with an insatiable demand for donated organs.
Organox Ltd.’s normothermic machine perfusion device, Metra, has been cleared by the U.S. FDA for use during air transport. The greenlight from the regulatory body paves the way for the broader use of donor organs that might otherwise be discarded, as the Metra system circulates oxygen and nutrient rich perfusate through the organ at near-body temperature, extending preservation times.
After making a significant strategic investment in Oxganox Ltd. earlier this year, Terumo Corp. quickly returned to buy the organ preservation company. On Aug. 25, the companies announced that Terumo would acquire Organox for $1.5 billion, marking Terumo’s entry into the organ transplant sector. The transaction is one of the largest exits ever for the U.K. med-tech sector.
After making a significant strategic investment in Oxganox Ltd. earlier this year, Terumo Corp. returned to buy the company. This morning, the companies announced that Terumo would acquire Organox for $1.5 billion, marking Terumo’s entry into the organ transplant sector. The transaction is one of the largest exits ever for the U.K. med-tech sector.
Private equity firm TPG Inc. validated rumors circulating since August that it was seeking a buyer for Immucor Inc. with the announcement of an agreement to sell the diagnostics company for $2 billion to Werfen SA. Immucor offers transfusion and transplantation diagnostics making it a natural fit for Werfen, which develops specialized diagnostic instruments, reagents and data management solutions. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023.
Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan have deployed improved genetically modified human stem cell-derived retinal transplants to treat rats with retinitis pigmentosa, a major cause of hereditary human blindness.
In a move that will substantially expand the number of livers available for transplantation, the FDA granted premarket approval to Organox Ltd.’s Metra normothermic machine perfusion device for both donors after brain death (DBD) and donors after circulatory death (DCD). The approval allows preservation of organs by Metra for up to 12 hours.
Following an FDA priority review, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s oral antiviral, maribavir, has won U.S. approval as the first drug in the country to treat resistant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease in adult and pediatric transplant recipients. The drug will be marketed as Livtencity.
In a deal worth up to $108 million, ophthalmic startup Eluminex Biosciences Ltd. has licensed the global rights to Fibrogen Inc.’s biosynthetic cornea derived from recombinant human collagen (RHC) type III intended to tackle corneal blindness.
Researchers have gained new insights into what makes for transplantable livers – and what doesn’t. In a clinical trial of 12 livers, a team from Massachusetts General Hospital showed that both livers with high fat content and those without could be viable for transplantation.
