New investor HealthQuest Capital led the oversubscribed funding round. Existing investors BGF and Lauxera Capital Partners, with new investors Sofina, Soleus Capital and Avidity Partners participated, too. OrganOx’s investors also include the University of Oxford, Technikos, the Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund and Longwall Ventures.
The funds aim to accelerate the company’s Metra platform in the large, high-growth organ technology global market.
Approved in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia, Metra is a normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) platform technology that has been utilized in over 5,000 liver transplants to date. The system keeps donor livers in a metabolically active state outside the body. This provides transplant teams the opportunity for functional assessment of the organ prior to transplant. According to OrganOx, this leads to an increased number of organs available for transplant.
OrganOx also has an investigational Metra system for kidney transplants under development. It plans to begin U.S. clinical trials for that platform “soon.” The company also expects to begin a first-in-human clinical study of Metra combined with eGenesis’ genetically engineered porcine livers to support patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure.
CFO Steve Deitsch said in a news release that the latest investment supports the success of OrganOx’s current customers, expansion of its customer base and entry into new markets.
“Organ disease and failure represent a large unmet need in healthcare, and we are excited to partner with HealthQuest Capital and the outstanding investor syndicate to work together to improve patient care and outcomes,” said Dr. Oern R. Stuge, OrganOx executive chair.
