Terumo said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of organ transplant device maker OrganOx for $1.5 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, OrganOx will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Terumo.
The acquisition marks Terumo’s strategic entry into the organ transplantation-related sector. By combining Terumo’s expertise in designing medical devices and equipment with OrganOx’s advanced capabilities in Normothermic Machine Perfusion (NMP), the company aims to deliver innovative organ preservation devices globally.
Terumo seeks to broaden access for patients in need of transplants and contribute to the advancement of transplantation medicine by aiming to address key challenges in organ transplantation, including improving organ utilization rates, enabling the use of marginal donor organs, enhancing post-transplant outcomes, and reducing the burden on healthcare professionals through minimizing nighttime and emergency procedures.
Founded in 2008 as a spin-off from the University of Oxford, OrganOx is a medical technology company specializing in advanced NMP devices for organ preservation. NMP and other ex-vivo machine perfusion (EVMP) technologies can preserve organs longer by circulating oxygen- and nutrient-rich perfusate through the organ at near-body temperature. In addition, NMP devices enable real-time monitoring of organ condition during storage and transport.
OrganOx’s liver NMP device, metra, received FDA approval in 2021 and was launched in the U.S. in 2022. The device has also obtained regulatory approvals in the EU, UK, Australia, and Canada, and is currently being commercialized in all of these regions. To date, the device has been used in more than 6,000 liver transplant procedures worldwide. OrganOx has established itself as a leader in liver NMP technology and aims to achieve revenue growth that significantly outpaces overall industry expansion. In addition, OrganOx is currently developing a kidney NMP device, with commercialization targeted around 2030.
