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Enzyme products maker ZymeQuest Inc. is looking to pump new blood into the market for platelet transfusion technology.
Since its founding in 1993, Beverly-based ZymeQuest had made money by licensing its enzyme technologies to third parties. Now ZymeQuest is planning to reinvent its business by selling blood and transfusion technologies, and will probably even change its name, executives said.
Its goal is to first market its platelet refrigeration technology. Currently, blood platelets must be stored at room temperature instead of a refrigerator because refrigerating platelets changes their density and external structure. When introduced into a patient’s body, they are seen as a foreign substance, which causes the platelets to be cleared from a patient’s circulation before they can provide a clinical benefit, said Samira Johnson, vice president of marketing and business development at ZymeQuest.
On the other hand, storing platelets at room temperature enables bacterial contamination growth, and limits the platelet shelf life to five days, she said. To solve that problem, ZymeQuest offers a disposable container with naturally occurring sugars that will store refrigerated platelets safely. “Our process for treating the platelets allows them to go back to their normal state, and therefore we believe they will circulate normally after transfusion,” she said.
The technology is almost in the final human feasibility trial, after which it would move to a human clinical trial, which could be held next year. To pay for the relaunch, ZymeQuest is hoping to close, at least partially, on a projected $30 million financing round in the next several months to hire more employees and get its technology to market, said Johnson. The company recently received bridge financing with existing investors, but that was “minimal,” she said. She wouldn’t disclose the company’s backers.
There is an unmet need for devices that support the optimal preparation of blood cells for transfusion, stated Thomas Stossel, co-director of the division of hematology at Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in an e-mail. ZymeQuest’s technology could address that gap. Also, by enabling platelet refrigeration, it solves the “common complication of bacterial contamination,” he said.
Among ZymeQuest’s other technologies in the pipeline is an automated blood component processor that will speed up and make separating plasma and red blood cells more efficient, said Johnson.
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