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Hemanext Welcomes New Member to Board of Directors

Hemanext Inc., a leading innovator in blood processing, storage, and transfusion technology, announces the appointment of Geoff Crouse, an esteemed professional with over 25 years of leadership in the life sciences sector, to its Board of Directors. Geoff Crouse joins the visionary leadership team guiding Hemanext’s mission to elevate the standard of care for patients who depend on transfusions.

Geoff serves as CEO and Board Member of Candela Medical, one of the world’s largest global medical aesthetic device companies, since 2017, overseeing the company’s global operations in the US, Europe, China and Japan. Additionally, he has previously held key executive roles including Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cord Blood Registry and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Immucor, as well as senior positions at Millipore and Roche Diagnostics. At Cord Blood Registry, he completed the acquisition of the Company in partnership with GTCR and ultimately selling it to AMAG Pharmaceuticals in a transaction valued at over $700M. He also served on the Board of Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), supporting its growth from early-stage financing to a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO). Geoff holds a BA in English from Boston College and both an MBA and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley.

“We are delighted to welcome Geoff to Hemanext’s Board of Directors,” Andrew Dunham, CEO of Hemanext stated, “His depth of experience and forward-thinking perspectives will be instrumental as we advance our mission and drive innovation. We look forward to his contributions as we enter this next phase of growth.”

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 focus on the study of hypoxically stored red blood cells (RBCs). The company’s aim is to significantly improve the quality of stored RBCs worldwide.

About Hemanext ONE

Hemanext ONE has been granted marketing authorization for commercial distribution via the De Novo process by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It is intended to process and store CP2D/AS-3 Red Blood Cells, Leukocytes Reduced (LR RBC) that have been prepared within the standard 8-hour hold time. Processing of Red Blood Cells processed with the HEMANEXT ONE system must be initiated within 8 hours of collection and completed within 12 hours of collection. The Red Blood Cells must be processed at room temperature (20-26°C). The HEMANEXT ONE system limits O2 and CO2 levels in the storage environment. Red Blood Cells Leukocytes Reduced, O2/CO2 Reduced may be stored for up to 42 days at 1-6°C. HEMANEXT ONE is used for volumes no greater than 350 mL of LR RBC.

In Europe, Hemanext ONE is CE marked, which allows its commercial distribution within the market of the European Economic Area (EEA).

The HEMANEXT ONE RBC Processing and Storage system limits oxygen, the fuel for oxidative damage, providing a higher quality blood product.1,2,3 It has the potential to benefit all patients requiring transfusion for chronic conditions, such as thalassemia4, sickle cell disease (SCD)5, and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS),6 as well as those in need of critical transfusions during acute bleeding in surgery, trauma and other medical procedures.7

HEMANEXT ONE creates hypoxic RBCs, RBCs that have been processed to reduce oxygen and carbon dioxide content of RBCs and to maintain these levels throughout storage up to 42 days.3 Hypoxic RBCs have demonstrated positive impacts on multiple in vitro metrics of RBC quality in preclinical studies.8,9 Clinical studies are underway to determine the impact of hypoxic RBCs on patient outcomes and estimate potential cost savings from expected improvements in care and reductions in transfusion volumes.10

Hemanext Media Contact
Robert Haime
Vice President, Commercial
robert.haime@hemanext.com
(781) 301-7474

  1. Rabcuka J, Blonski S, Meli A, et al. Metabolic reprogramming under hypoxic storage preserves faster oxygen unloading from stored red blood cells. Blood Adv. 2022;6(18):5415-5428. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2022007774
  2. Reisz JA, Wither MJ et al. Oxidative modifications of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase regulate metabolic reprogramming of stored red blood cells. 2016;128(12): e32-42.
  3. HEMANEXT ONE® (Blood container set used to process and store CP2D/AS-3 Red Blood Cells, Leukocytes Reduced, and O2/CO2 Reduced) [US Instructions for Use]. Lexington, MA: Hemanext Inc.
  4. Farmakis D, Porter J, Taher A, et al. 2021 Thalassemia International Federation Guidelines for the management of transfusion-dependent thalassemia. 2022;6:8.
  5. Chou S, Alsawas M, Fasano R, et al. American Society of Hematology 2020 guidelines for sickle cell disease: transfusion support. Blood Adv. 2020;4:2.
  6. Germing U, Oliva E, Hiwase D, and Almeida A. Treatment of anemia in transfusion-dependent and non-transfusion-dependent lower-risk MDS: current and emerging strategies. 2019;3(6). doi: 10.1097/HS9.0000000000000314
  7. American College of Surgeons. ACS TQIP massive transfusion in trauma guidelines. ACS TQIP.2014; https://www.facs.org/media/zcjdtrd1/transfusion_guildelines.pdf.
  8. Yoshida T, Blair A, D’Alessandro A, et al. Enhancing uniformity and overall quality of red cell concentrate with anaerobic storage. Blood Transfus. 2017;15(2):172-81.
  9. Yoshida T, McMahon E, Croxon H, et al. The oxygen saturation of red blood cell concentrates: The basis for a novel index of red cell oxidative stress. Transfusion. 2022;62(1):183-193. doi: 10.1111/trf.16715.
  10. Reikvam H, Hetland G, Ezligini F, et al. Safety of hypoxic red blood cell administration in patients with transfusion-dependent hematological malignancies: An interim analysis. Transfus Apher Sci. 2023; doi: 10.1016/j.transci.2023.103755.

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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