OrganOx, maker of a device to preserve liver donations, has teamed up with ProCure On-Demand, an organ recovery services provider.
The partnership aims to improve the recovery and assessment of donor livers for transplantation by leveraging OrganOx’s normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) technology and ProCure’s solutions. ProCure offers surgical, preservation and logistics services to transplant centers and organ procurement organizations.
“ProCure has built a highly talented and deeply tenured team of abdominal surgeons and perfusionists that complement [our device],” Craig Marshall, CEO of OrganOx, told Fierce Healthcare. “Together, we are able to provide flexible solutions that meet the wide-ranging needs of transplant programs across the country and their unique operating environments.”
More than 10,000 livers were transplanted in 2023, a record. But many more could be, experts say, with the right technology and skilled doctors in place. Donated organs go unused for several reasons, ProCure co-founder and CEO Zachary Kon, M.D., explained. These can range from timing issues to logistics challenges to varying acceptance criteria.
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“Things on paper are not necessarily 100% reflective of how good or bad the liver is, ultimately,” Kon said. “You have to be willing to go and look at it, and access to these kinds of technology … allows transplant centers and surgeons more comfort to go and look in the first place.”
OrganOx's NMP approach requires special training and certification. The device, approved in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia, has been used in more than 5,000 liver transplants so far. NMP tech keeps donor livers in a metabolically active state outside the body so that a functional assessment of the organ can be performed before a transplant.
ProCure launched in late 2020 and began recovering organs in 2022, with the goal of making more organs reach recipients in need. To date, it has performed organ recoveries in 46 states and Puerto Rico, covering 53 organ procurement organization donation service areas. Its flexible model offers transplant centers a variety of services they can choose from without being locked into a comprehensive solution, executives say. Though OrganOx has its own certification to operate its device, ProCure also requires extra credentialing for its surgeons, promising higher-quality care.
One of the limitations of an NMP device is its size, weight and limited ability to fly on a plane, per Kon. Now, with the partnership, ProCure can offer clients delivery and use of the device in addition to other services. ProCure does not make money off OrganOx or the device, only charging for the service of delivering or operating it.
There are several different types of machine perfusion techniques. According to one estimate, machine perfusion in the U.S. was used on nearly 13% of all livers and more than a third of DCD livers—or livers from deceased donors—in 2023. These types of livers are considered higher risk and have been found to perform significantly better when stored via NMP technology.
A 2023 study found the U.S. had among the highest discard rates of DCD livers compared to other countries. It also found that countries that used machine perfusion regularly, such as Italy and Switzerland, had better DCD utilization rates without compromised outcomes.
When it comes to NMP specifically, utilization in the U.S. has grown from 7% in 2022 to 39% in 2024, according to data from L.E.K. Consulting seen by Fierce Healthcare. This trend, Kon predicts, will continue to grow.
“The accepted practice is going to be all livers, if not most livers, should get machine perfusion to have a better outcome than just ice alone,” Kon said.