ORGAN TRANSPLANT
Each year, thousands of lives are lost because
there is insufficient time to adequately match the best organ to
a recipient and ship it to its destination. Due to the very limited
time that an organ remains viable, it often cannot be transported
beyond a limited geographic radius. Of the more than 20,000 organs
recovered from donors in 2003, approximately 3,000 had to be discarded
due to spoilage or damage while others were used for research. Our
breakthrough technology could extend organ viability to days and
even years versus hours, thus providing a life-or-death difference
for patients awaiting organ transplants.
Some Startling Statistics:
A new patient is added to the
transplant waiting list every 15 minutes. The waiting list now includes
more than 3,100 children under age 17. Of the more than 92,500 people
on the list in 2003, only 25,460 were fortunate enough to receive
a new organ. In 2003, 5,850 patients died waiting for a transplant.
Our mission is to preserve thousands
of organs and offer new hope to thousands of patients waiting for
available organs. How long can an organ be preserved with HBS technology?
Our goal is to extend shelf life of organs from hours to days and
even years while maintaining viability, safety, and quality for
successful transplantation.
ORGAN PRESERVATION
Today, the most effective treatment for patients with organ failure
is to surgically replace the failed organ with a viable organ from
a cadaver or living donor. Organ transplantation can save and improve
the quality of life for many patients.
Currently,
there are over 173,000 transplant candidates registered on waiting
lists in approximately 724 transplant centers throughout North America
and Europe. At any given time, approximately 70% of these patients
are waiting for kidney transplants. The other patients are waiting
for liver, heart, heart-lung, bowel or pancreas transplants. Each
year approximately 61,750 new patients receive donated organs.
Many countries that have restricted
organ transplantation in the past due to traditional, cultural and
religious reasons have recently lifted such restrictions. Japan,
for example, legalized organ transplantation in late 1998.
The increasing number of organ
transplantations requires more available organs and increases the
need to store donor organs. Testing and transportation time to get
the best possible match of organ donor to the recipient increase
the need for improved organ storage methods compared to what is
currently available.
How long can an organ be stored
with Human BioSystems' technology prior to transplantation?
Our goal is to extend shelf life of organs from hours to days and
even years while maintaining viability, safety, and quality for
successful transplantation, reduce hospital stays and allow scheduled
versus emergency procedures to be the rule.
The most viable preservation and transportation technology for organs
-
We are dedicated in becoming
the leading supplier of extended preservation and transportation
technology for the organ market. With existing preservation methods,
the human heart and lungs are viable for only four to six hours,
whereas the liver and the pancreas can be stored marginally longer.
Kidneys are stored on ice for
up to 24-36 hours. In contrast, expensive perfusion systems can
extend the viability of the human heart for only a few hours longer
than is possible with a simple ice chest.
The availability of longer organ
preservation periods through our preservation technology will facilitate
more accurate donor/recipient organ-matches, reduce or eliminate
organ spoilage, and provide ample time to transport the organ, regardless
of the location of either the donor or recipient.
We envision our proprietary technique
to be at the forefront of organ preservation technology. Our market
opportunity for organ preservation products in the year of 2007
is estimated to be more than $ 300,000,000 annually.
|