Melbourne cryopreservation company Vitrafy Life Sciences has signed its third partnership with a US civilian blood network. It is the first of the three built around platelets, the fragile blood component whose seven-day shelf life leaves hospitals short of supply.
The company announced it would work with Versiti Blood Health. Versiti is a non-profit network that runs 42 fixed collection centres and supplies more than 400 hospitals across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The deal follows a Phase 2 in vitro study by the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, announced in May. In that study, a 3% DMSO no-wash protocol achieved 94.4% mean post-thaw platelet recovery using Vitrafy's cryopreservation ecosystem.
Managing director and chief executive Brent Owens said the military research had opened doors. "The Versiti partnership is the third major civilian blood network to come to us directly off the back of the USAISR platelets studies, and the first focused specifically on platelets," he said.
Vitrafy's earlier agreements with Vitalant and Hoxworth Blood Center both focus on red blood cells.
Under the new arrangement, both organisations will contribute resources to develop no-wash platelet cryopreservation within Versiti's own platelet workflows. Versiti also intends to explore whether the technology could work for other blood products, including red blood cells.
Mr Owens put the ambition in terms of supply. "Vitrafy's aim is to help supply hospitals with high-quality cryopreserved platelets," he said. He described the goal as "overcoming the seven-day shelf life that constrains today's supply and easing the platelet shortages that 33% of hospitals report facing in life-saving scenarios every day."
The 33 per cent figure comes from a 2023 Washington Post report on transfusion shortages.
Blood products supplied by Versiti will support verification and validation testing of Vitrafy's freezer for blood products that are already approved for cryopreservation, such as plasma. That work aims to complete US medical device listing for the freezer, which the company is targeting for financial year 2027.
Vitrafy will start by placing two freezing units at the Versiti Blood Research Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The units are free of charge and will not generate revenue. Vitrafy will also pay for certain verification and validation services Versiti is performing on its behalf as part of the FDA listing process now underway.
The company said use of its ecosystem for cryopreserved platelets is still in development and subject to US regulatory requirements.
Vitrafy's ecosystem pairs the Guardion cryopreservation freezing unit with LifeChain, a cloud-based software platform. It is designed to support the collection, storage and delivery of sensitive biological materials.
