Bridge to Life, Ltd. (“Bridge to Life” or the “Company”), a leading global supplier of organ preservation solutions and organ perfusion technologies, announced breakthrough device designation authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its LifeCradle® Heart Preservation Transport System.
The LifeCradle® Heart Preservation Transport System provides for preservation, storage, monitoring, and transportation of donor hearts using hypothermic, oxygenated, nutrient perfusion from the time of organ procurement until transplantation into the recipient.
The LifeCradle® Heart Preservation Transport System provides clinicians with the ability to affordably implement hypothermic oxygenated perfusion of heart grafts during graft transport from the donor site to the transplant center operating room. The inherently intuitive system utilizes a plug-and-play design for a streamlined workflow facilitating easy setup and minimal user burden. The system uses Belzer MPS® UW Machine Perfusion Solution perfusate requiring no blood or blood products.
“LifeCradle opens a window to the future of long-duration heart preservation and transportation, so that a heart from Miami can fly to Seattle and be implanted,” said Richard Birch, Bridge to Life Vice President of Business Development.
“Bridge to Life continues to research and develop technology to improve organ preservation and have now added organ perfusion devices including for liver, kidney, lung and heart to our portfolio of products,” said Bridge to Life Chairman and CEO Stevan Schweighardt. “The addition of perfusion technology provides for more and better-quality organs to the transplant community worldwide.”
About Bridge to Life
Bridge to Life was founded with the mission of improving organ transplants by licensing and developing new preservation solutions and technologies to provide the highest quality of service to organ procurement organizations and transplant centers. The U.S. based company, headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, is a leading supplier of preservation solutions worldwide with a focus on innovation in organ preservation and machine perfusion. Through a strong focus on collaboration with surgeons and transplant professionals, it continues to explore emerging science and preservation technologies.