TransMedics Announces Successful Long Distance Retrieval and Transplantation of Donor Lungs from Hawaii Using Organ Care System (OCS™)

ANDOVER, Mass., July 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TransMedics Group, Inc. (“TransMedics”) (Nasdaq: TMDX), a medical technology company that is transforming organ transplant therapy for patients with end-stage lung, heart and liver failure, today announced the OCS Lung technology was used in two successful lung transplants using donor lungs from Hawaii that initially were declined for transplantation due to time and distance limitations of standard cold storage preservation.

Donor lungs retrieved from Hawaii that initially were not accepted for transplantation due to limitations of cold static storage were successfully transplanted after using the OCS Lung System. The OCS was used to reduce the ischemic injury, monitor continuously, and assess the function of the donor lungs from the time they left the donor body until they were transplanted successfully into matched recipients on the national transplant waiting list. The first pair of lungs was transplanted in North Carolina 20+ hours after retrieval from a donor in Hawaii. The second transplant was performed in Arizona after 9+ hours from donor to recipient. Both transplant recipients have been discharged from the hospital.

“This technology could fundamentally change the paradigm of organ retrieval, improve transplant outcomes, and dramatically increase the number of organ transplants in the United States,” said David Klassen, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). “The successful transplantation of donor lungs that traveled over 4,700 miles and were maintained functioning for approximately 20 hours outside of a human body is a remarkable achievement and ushers in a new era in thoracic organ transplantation.”

“With the historical time and distance limitations of cold static storage on donor organs, these precious donor lungs would have gone unused for transplantation,” said Leonard Licina, President and CEO of Legacy of Life Hawaii (LLH) Organ Procurement Organization. “As we have witnessed with these recent transplants, the OCS Lung System clearly eliminates these limitations and allows for increased utilization of donor organs for transplantation. We are excited to be a part of this important milestone in organ transplantation,” said Mr. Licina.

“These two cases mark an important milestone in transforming thoracic transplantation to benefit more patients in need of a lung transplant,” said Dr. Waleed Hassanein, President and CEO. “It is a new dawn in organ transplantation, and we are committed to being on the forefront of this transformation with our leading OCS clinical users and collaborators,” said Dr. Hassanein.

About TransMedics Group, Inc.
TransMedics is the world’s leader in portable ex-vivo warm perfusion and assessment of donor organs for transplantation. Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, the company was founded to address the unmet need for more and better organs for transplantation, and has developed technologies to preserve organ quality, assess organ viability prior to transplant, and potentially increase the utilization of donor organs for the treatment of end-stage heart, lung and liver failure.