Paragonix Technologies today announced the FDA clearance and U.S. launch of its SherpaPak pancreas transport system, which the company says is able to provide “unprecedented thermal and physical protection” during the transportation of donor pancreases slated for people with diabetes.
“The donor pancreas is highly susceptible to cold and compression injury during transport. Technologies that improve on the current method of storing a pancreas in an ice cooler are desperately needed,” said Dr. Matthew Cooper, director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute (MGTI) and professor of surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Paragonix CEO Bill Edelman said there were nearly 1,000 transplants in the U.S. last year that involves pancreases, or a combination of pancreases and kidneys.
“We believe the Paragonix SherpaPak PTS will be highly impactful for both single-pancreas transplantation as well as for combined pancreas plus kidney transplantation, for which we offer our FDA-cleared Paragonix SherpaPak kidney transport system (KTS) for advanced kidney preservation,” Edelman said.
Paragonix has positioned itself as an innovator when it comes to the transportation of donor organs, with the goal of improving donor organ quality and extending donor organ transport time. The company touts its SherpaPak CTS as the only commercially available FDA-cleared and CE-marked heart transportation device. The company is also developing devices for lung, liver, pancreas and kidney transport.