Glycorex Transplantation

We have had the opportunity to interview Dr. Issitt, Senior Paediatric Perfusionist at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London, and the full interview is scheduled to be published in our interim report for the first quarter, which will be released on May 23. 
 
In 2015, the perfusionist team and the transplant team at GOSH in London, incorporated Glycosorb® ABO into the cardiopulmonary bypass system in order to expand the donor pool and facilitate for more children to receive a heart transplant. GOSH has since published three articles^1,2,3. The short-term data are excellent and have shown clear advantages over the previously used method. 

In 2021, BBC wrote about Lucy, a 10-year-old girl, who is thought to be the oldest child in the world to receive a blood group incompatible heart (link). 

Furthermore, the team at GOSH have just submitted for publication, a case report for a 9-year-old child (around 40 kg) who had an ABO-incompatible heart transplant using two Glycosorb® ABO columns placed in parallel to ensure the safe reduction in antibodies within a short time frame, demonstrating that this technology could push the boundaries of what’s possible even further.

The treatment with Glycosorb® ABO has also been introduced at other heart transplant centres in Europe. All the European centres, including GOSH, are aiming to collaborate to produce a 10 year follow up report of the first cases next year, as mentioned in the interview: ‘Intraoperative immunoadsorption is becoming seen as the gold-standard for facilitating ABO-incompatible heart and lung transplantation.’

1. Robertson A, Issitt R, Crook R, Gustafsson K, Eddaoudi A, Tsang V, Burch M; A novel method for ABO-incompatible heart transplantation J Heart Lung Transplant. 2018 Apr;37(4):451-457. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2017.05.006.Epub 2017 May 5.

2. Issitt R, Crook R, Shaw M, Robertson A; The Great Ormond Street Hospital immunoadsorption method for ABO-incompatible heart transplantation: a practical technique
Perfusion 2021 Jan;36(1):34-37. doi: 10.1177/0267659120926895. Epub 2020 Jun 3.

3. Issitt R, Booth J, Crook R, Robertson A, Molyneux V, Richardson R, Cross N, Shaw M, Tsang V, Muthurangu V, Sebire NJ, Burch M, Fenton M. Intraoperative anti-A/B immunoadsorption is associated with significantly reduced blood product utilization with similar outcomes in pediatric ABO-incompatible heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2021 May 29:S1053-2498(21)02325-1.

For more information, please contact:
Johan Nilsson, interim CEO
Email: johan.nilsson@glycorex.com, Tel: +46 46 286 5230

Brief information about the company
Glycorex Transplantation AB (publ) is a global medical technology company headquartered in Sweden. The company has developed a unique medical technology (antigen-specific immunoadsorption) to specifically reduce blood group and autoantibodies in the blood.

The company's focus areas are within transplantation, blood transfusion, and autoimmune diseases. The company has sales in over 25 countries, with Europe as its largest market. Sales take place through own sales channels and in cooperation with distributors in selected markets. Product development and production takes place in the company’s own facility in Lund, Sweden.

Glycosorb® ABO is one of the company's self-developed proprietary medical devices that is used to facilitate blood group-incompatible transplantation by specifically reducing anti-A/B antibodies in the organ recipient's plasma. Whilst primarily used to facilitate blood group incompatible kidney transplants, Glycosorb® ABO is also used in blood group incompatible liver-, heart-, lung-, and stem cell transplants. More than 60 scientific publications have been published in reputable medical journals, showing excellent short- and long-term outcomes of blood group incompatible transplants performed with Glycosorb® ABO. Glycosorb® ABO has been used in more than 6,500 transplants in over 25 countries. 

The company has also developed and CE-marked a medical device variant of Glycosorb® ABO that targets a different customer segment: transfusion clinics and blood centers. The product can help increase the availability of universal blood components and has been shown to be effective for the preparation of low-titer blood plasma, whole blood, and platelet concentrate.
The company is collaborating with a leading European research institute to develop a product for the treatment of the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis.

Glycorex Transplantation AB (publ) is listed on NGM Main Regulated Equity (Nordic Growth Market) and is traded under the symbol GTAB B.