TransMedics Inc., makers of first device to maintain functioning organs outside the body, raises $29.75m funding led by 3i

A privately held medical device company founded in 1998 to address the unmet need for better, more effective organ transplant technologies, announced today that it has raised $29.75 million in Series C financing.

The company''s breakthrough, investigational technology, the Organ Care System, is the first organ transport system designed to maintain organs in a warm, functioning state outside of the body to optimize their health, enabling living organ transplant.  The goal of the system is to ensure the healthiest possible organs for transplant and to increase the number of usable transplant organs.  TransMedics recently initiated the European PROTECT trial, designed to evaluate the safety and performance of the Organ Care System for heart transplants.  

The investment round was led by global venture capital group 3i Group, with additional investments from prior investors Alta Partners, CB Health Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Posco BioVentures, Sagamore Bioventures, Sherbrooke Capital and VantagePoint Venture Partners.  The capital will be used to accelerate TransMedics'' growth by continuing the PROTECT trial, and initiating new trials in Europe and the U.S.  Additionally, it will be used for commercialization of the Organ Care System, and to extend the platform to other organs beyond the heart, such as the lung, liver and kidneys.
"TransMedics is currently on track to meet our development goals, including European market approval early in 2007," said Dr. Waleed Hassanein, president and CEO of TransMedics, Inc. " We''re pleased with the PROTECT trial''s progress so far and have plans to expand our clinical studies beyond Germany and the UK in the near future."
"TransMedics'' Organ Care System is designed to meet a growing global need - currently expected to surpass 200,000 by the end of the decade - for donor organs that arrive at their destination in a healthy state," said Allan Ferguson, Senior Partner of lead investor 3i Group.  "We''re pleased with the initial success reported in the early stages of the PROTECT trial, and we believe the Organ Care System is poised to transform the landscape of organ transplantation."

The Growing Need for New Transplant Technologies
The number of people requiring a life-saving transplant continues to rise faster than the number of available donors. Of the 91,000 people in the U.S. currently waiting for a donor organ, only a third will receive a transplant, while nearly 7,000 will die each year while waiting for an organ.  This means approximately 17 transplant candidates die each day while waiting to receive a donor organ.   The situation is equally serious in Europe.  For example, of the 12,000 people in Germany currently waiting for a donor organ, only a third will receive a transplant. Nearly 1,000 transplant candidates die each year.  While there has been some progress in increasing donation rates in the last year, the demand for donor organs is increasing as well.  In the UK today, there are 6,000 patients waiting for an organ transplant.  However, fewer than 3,000 transplants are carried out annually; thus the transplant list continues to get longer. More than half of all hearts that have been consented for donation still go unused. The limits of current cold preservation methods contribute to this problem.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Reiner Körfer, medical director of the Heart and Diabetes Centre in North Rhine Westphalia stated: "Our initial experience with the TransMedics Organ Care System has been very encouraging.  We believe that maintaining hearts in a beating, functioning state during transport, will result in decreased risk of organ damage and its associated complications."