Unique human liver support system technology receives £4.6 million BGF investment

Published by

Nicky Godding

Oxford-based MedTech business, OrganOx Ltd, has received a £4.6 million investment from BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses.

The investment will fund commercial expansion of its first product, the metra, in the US, building on commercial traction in Europe, Canada and Australia.

OrganOx metra is the world’s first fully automated system for keeping a human donor liver functioning for up to 24 hours outside the body. The invention breaks with 40 years of traditional organ preservation in ice, doubling the time that donor organs can be preserved. The device mimics the environment of the human body with warm, oxygenated blood and nutrients supplied to the donor liver in the crucial time between donation and transplantation. Through developing themetra, OrganOx has enabled transplant teams to objectively assess the function of a donor liver before a transplant, something which is impossible with ice storage. This is particularly important when a donor liver is identified as ‘marginal’, when there is uncertainty as to whether it will function following transplant.

So far, more than 600 patients have received a liver preserved with the OrganOx metra. It is commercially available in Europe and has been used clinically in North America and Australia. The underpinning technology was developed at the University of Oxford and OrganOx Ltd was spun out from the University in 2008 to develop and manufacture the OrganOx metra. In the US, the metra is currently operating under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA, before final FDA review in 2020.

Craig Marshall, CEO of OrganOx, who was interviewed in Business & Innovation Magazine last September, said: “This investment is key for 2 reasons. First, the funding will be critical in allowing us to execute our commercial plans in the US. Secondly, having BGF at the board table will ensure we leverage its impressive track record of successfully guiding growing businesses to achieve their full potential. Ultimately this is great news for all our stakeholders including current investors, employees and patients requiring a lifesaving organ transplant.”

Alex Snodgrass, an investor at BGF, said: “We are excited to be investing in another thriving business in the UK’s life sciences sector and growing our presence here in Oxford, one of the country’s most dynamic and innovative business communities. As the first company to commercialise a fully automated liver preservation system, OrganOx has radically disrupted the transplant market and we believe that the potential of this ground-breaking technology on global mortality rates could be significant. We are delighted to be supporting Craig and the team as they scale up OrganOx and take advantage of the opportunities to expand their reach and bring this critical technology to even more patients around the world.”

The advisers to the transaction were:

For OrganOx: James Went from Penningtons Manches Cooper

For BGF: Penelope Garden from Field Seymour Parkes (FSP).

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.