OrganOx raises £1.5M Series A financing

Investment round completed

Isis Innovation, the University of Oxford’s technology transfer company, has announced that OrganOx Ltd, a spin-out from the university’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nuffield Department of Surgery, has raised £1.5 million in equity financing. This Series A round was led by Oxford Technology Management Ltd and Technikos LLP. The Oxford University Challenge Seed Fund also participated in the round.

OrganOx is developing a device for sustaining organs outside the body using blood at normal body temperatures. The device was invented by academic founders Peter Friend, a leading transplant surgeon, and Constantin Coussios, a biomedical engineer. In the first instance, it will be used to improve and prolong preservation and transportation of livers before transplantation.

“The major benefit of the OrganOx technology will be to increase the number of suitable livers available for organ transplantation,” said Les Russell,  CEO of OrganOx.

In Europe and the US there is a combined waiting list of around 30,000 patients waiting for liver transplants, up to 25 per cent of these patients die while awaiting transplantation. Over 2,000 livers are discarded annually because they are either damaged by oxygen deprivation or by intracellular fat. The OrganOx technology allows livers to be preserved for up to three days, more than three times as long as is possible by conventional cold storage. The company also expects that the technology will also allow livers currently deemed unsuitable for transplantation to recover to an acceptable standard.

“We are delighted to have concluded this financing round and to have a syndicate of highly experienced life science investors on board with the Company. The funds raised will now be invested in developing a working prototype of the machine and completion of the pre-clinical studies before undertaking clinical investigations,” said Russell.  

Tom Hockaday, Isis Innovation’s managing director, said: “Isis is proud that OrganOx has successfully raised this funding, and congratulates the researchers, management team and investors on this milestone. The Oxford University Challenge Seed Fund continues to be instrumental in providing early funding for these promising technologies.”