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Appointment of Daan Kok as Executive VP & General Manager for EMEA

Hemanext Inc. (“Hemanext” or the “Company”), a leading innovator in blood processing and storage technology, today announced the appointment of Daan Kok as the Executive Vice President & General Manager of Hemanext for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In his role, Daan will report directly to Hemanext President and CEO, Martin Cannon.

“We are excited to welcome Daan Kok to be Hemanext’s European leader. He brings a wealth of experience in Hematology and operations in Europe and has an outstanding track record of innovation and driving strong growth”, said Hemanext President and CEO Martin Cannon. “Hemanext ground-breaking research and initiatives aim at improving the quality of red blood cells by developing innovative technologies and I cannot think of a more qualified and experienced candidate than Daan to drive Hemanext’s business in EMEA in 2022 and beyond.”

“Hemanext technology has the potential to transform how blood centers approach RBC processing and storage which could benefit all patients requiring transfusions”, said Daan Kok. “It is for these reasons that I am joining an incredible team to be a part of such an important mission.”

Daan joins Hemanext from bluebird bio where he held the roles of VP & GM Expansion Markets, EMEA, and VP of Commercial Operations, Europe. Prior to bluebird, Daan worked for ten years at Celgene as Business Unit Director Hematology and Oncology in Belgium, Luxembourg, and several Nordic countries and held Strategic Planning and Business Development, Sales, and Marketing management positions.

About Hemanext

Hemanext is a privately held medical technology company based in Lexington, MA that is dedicated to improving the quality, safety, efficacy, and cost of transfusion therapy. The company’s research and development efforts center on the study of hypoxically stored red blood cells (RBCs). The company’s aim is to significantly improve the quality of stored RBCs by limiting oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the storage environment.

Hemanext Key Milestones

  • April 7, 2021: Hemanext ONE® received CE Mark certification for sale in the European market.
  • November 16, 2021: Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB), the leading international not-for-profit association for transfusion medicine and biotherapies, gave its Research Innovation in Scientific Excellence (RISE) award to a scientific paper co-written by the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Andrew Dunham, PhD, and Principal Scientist, Tatsuro Yoshida, PhD.
  • December 30, 2021: Hemanext ONE® was submitted for marketing authorization review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The product is currently available in the United States for investigational use only, pending market authorization from the FDA.
  • January 6, 2022: The Hemanext ONE® technology became the first system providing both blood processing and storage to be recognized by AABB for compliance with its industry-recognized quality and safety standards SCoPE Program. The accreditation from AABB confirms that Hemanext’s technology meets the industry-leading requirements laid out by the association.
  • February 14, 2022: Hemanext raised an additional $8M, building on the first round of $15M that was raised in September of 2021. This successfully closed Series A-4 equity funding round, bringing the total raised to more than $100 million.

Hemanext Media Contact
Stacy Smith
Associate Director Marketing Communications
stacy.smith@hemanext.com

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By producing higher quality RBCs, the Hemanext ONE system has the potential to enable fewer and more effective transfusions for patients. I am truly excited by the possibility of bringing this improved red blood cell replacement therapy to populations in the U.S. that have been waiting for a transformative technology like this one.

Dr. Philip C. Spinella
Professor, Department of Surgery and Department of Critical Care Medicine at University of Pittsburgh

We value our partnership with Hemanext to enhance blood product quality and availability. Hemanext ONE has the potential to strengthen the resiliency of the blood supply, and this FDA authorization is a significant milestone to that end.

Ralph Vassallo, MD, FACP
Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of Vitalant

The Hemanext ONE system offers promise to improve the treatment landscape for patients burdened by transfusions and could be an essential step towards performing fewer and better transfusions. Having long championed Hemanext’s transformative initiatives, I eagerly anticipate witnessing the positive influence, right here in the United States, on the advancement of transfusion therapy quality.

Paul M. Ness, MD
Former Director, Division of Transfusion Medicine at Johns Hopkins University and board member of Hemanext

By deoxygenating red cells and maintaining them in their hypoxic state throughout storage, the resulting red cells experience less oxidative stress and oxidative damage, have improved metabolism, and are also more deformable leading to improved micro vascular profusion and less hemolysis.

Dr. Steven Spitalnik, MD
Co-Director of the Laboratory of Transfusion Biology, Colombia University

The preclinical data by Williams et al. show anaerobically stored RBCs achieve multiple clinically important functional resuscitation goals, with a smaller volume of fluid and the FDA benchmark of 24-hour RBC recovery. I look forward to the clinical trials in bleeding patients.

John Holcomb, MD, FACS
University of Alabama at Birmingham

I have had several patients who have received Hemanext hypoxic blood, and several of the patients have personally said thanks for having been given the opportunity and also that they have felt better after transfusion with hypoxic blood compared to conventional transfusion. One must of course be careful not to attach too much importance to such observations, but I would still like to mention that there has been a remarkable tendency towards this.

Håkon Reikvam, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Norway

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This website may contain information on products or uses of those products that are not authorized in all countries or regions. Hemanext ONE has been granted marketing authorization for commercial distribution via the De Novo process by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. In Europe Hemanext ONE is CE marked which allows the medical device to be placed in the market in the EEA. Illustrations are artist’s representations only and should not be considered as engineering drawings or photographs. Hemanext, Hemanext ONE, and the logos are registered trademarks of Hemanext, Inc. © 2026 Hemanext, Inc. All rights reserved.

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