Bridge to Life Raises $110 Million to Make Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion the Standard of Care in Liver Transplantation
核心洞察
Bridge to Life completed a $110 million Series C and debt financing led by Soleus Capital (搜索) and Lauxera Capital Partners (搜索) to scale its VitaSmart HOPE System launch and advance its product pipeline.
The VitaSmart Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion (HOPE) System (搜索) is the first and only hypothermic oxygenated perfusion system cleared by the FDA for liver transplantation (搜索), following its De Novo clearance in January 2026.
UK NICE issued guidance recommending routine NHS funding for ex-situ machine perfusion devices, including VitaSmart, citing improved graft survival and fewer biliary complications versus static cold storage.
Bridge to Life Ltd. (搜索), a market leader in organ preservation solutions and perfusion technologies, announced the successful completion of a $110 million Series C and debt financing to accelerate the commercial rollout of its VitaSmart Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion (HOPE) System (搜索) and advance its broader organ preservation pipeline. The equity financing was led by new investor Soleus Capital (搜索), along with Lauxera Capital Partners (搜索) and participation by Bridge to Life directors, officers, and employees, while the debt financing was provided by Soleus Capital Credit Opportunities Fund.
The financing follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) De Novo clearance of the VitaSmart HOPE System in January 2026, making it the first and only hypothermic oxygenated perfusion system authorized by the FDA for use in liver transplantation (搜索).
"Bridge to Life is committed to improving transplant medicine through science-based solutions that bring more organs to more patients," said Don Webber, CEO and President of Bridge to Life Ltd. (搜索) "This financing marks an important milestone for Bridge to Life and reflects the confidence our investors have in our technology, team, and long-term growth strategy. The VitaSmart launch has outpaced our expectations, as leading academic centers are adopting it rapidly."
Scaling a New Standard of Care in Perfusion
Proceeds from the financing will primarily be used to scale the company's commercial and clinical field organizations, providing the infrastructure required to deliver VitaSmart to every U.S. transplant center seeking to modernize its organ preservation capabilities. In just six months, VitaSmart has rapidly become part of routine clinical practice, evidenced by master service agreements with a growing number of leading academic transplant centers, organ procurement organizations, and several of the nation's highest-volume liver transplant programs, including first-time adopters of cold perfusion.
With more than 100,000 U.S. patients currently awaiting life-saving transplants, the company emphasizes a critical need to maximize the use of every available donor organ. The VitaSmart System directly addresses this acute shortage by expanding the pool of viable organs, helping to reduce waitlist times and save more lives.
"We led this financing because Bridge to Life pairs an established preservation franchise with a newly FDA-cleared perfusion platform that is already rapidly being adopted in the field, and with a credible pipeline behind it — this is a combination we believe is unmatched in the transplant category," said Ben Lund, Partner, Soleus Capital (搜索).
UK NICE Recommends Routine NHS Funding
The financing announcement comes alongside new HealthTech guidance from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which recommends routine National Health Service (NHS) funding for ex-situ machine perfusion devices, including Bridge to Life's VitaSmart HOPE System, to preserve deceased donor livers for transplantation.
Following a rigorous evaluation, NICE determined that advanced perfusion systems deliver clear clinical benefits over traditional static cold storage both clinically and financially, further noting that hypothermic oxygenated perfusion was associated with improved graft survival and fewer biliary complications.
"NICE's recommendation marks a milestone towards establishing hypothermic oxygenated perfusion as the standard of care in liver transplantation (搜索)," said Don Webber. "Europe has embraced HOPE for well over a decade, demonstrating its value for perfusion therapy across the region. Validation from a respected body like NICE provides additional confidence in HOPE's clinical and economic advantages at a time when U.S. physicians are being introduced to this technology following our FDA De Novo clearance."
The VitaSmart system utilizes HOPE to supply an oxygenated solution to donor livers prior to transplantation. Built for operational simplicity, ease of adoption, and capital efficiency, VitaSmart seamlessly integrates into clinical workflows without the operational complexity or heavy cost structure associated with normothermic systems. In addition to the U.S. and U.K., VitaSmart is available in Europe, Saudi Arabia, India, and in all countries accepting the CE mark.
"Routine NHS funding for systems like VitaSmart signals a new era for liver transplantation (搜索) programs in the UK," said Rebbeca Sanabria Mateos, Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. "Having equitable access to efficient, user-friendly perfusion technology allows our surgical teams to safely and confidently utilize extended-criteria donor organs, streamline operating room logistics, and ultimately deliver better outcomes for our patients."
Advancing Organ Viability Assessment
Bridge to Life is advancing a first-in-class, science-based viability assessment tool designed to set a new industry standard in transplant medicine. Currently, donated organs are accepted or declined based on a combination of visual assessment, donor characteristics, clinical judgment, and, during normothermic perfusion, surrogate measures such as lactate clearance and bile production. Bridge to Life seeks to augment these traditional measures with a more definitive, science-based evaluation of organ viability, giving surgeons the confidence to accept marginal and extended-criteria grafts, reduce preventable organ non-use, and standardize acceptance practice across centers.
The viability assessment tool is currently in development and under investigation, and it is not cleared for commercial sale at this time.
Expanding Beyond Liver Transplantation
The remaining capital will fund Bridge to Life's broader innovation pipeline, expanding its organ preservation and perfusion portfolio beyond liver transplantation (搜索) into additional organ applications over the next three years. The company is also actively developing next-generation closed systems to streamline transport, supporting the expansion of its global commercial footprint.
Proceeds were also used to refinance the company's credit facility with Perceptive Credit Funds, significantly reducing outstanding leverage and lowering its interest rate as Bridge to Life has evolved from early development stage to a fully commercial organization.
VitaSmart joins a preservation franchise anchored by Belzer UW, widely regarded as the global gold standard in cold static preservation and the most extensively used cold flush solution in abdominal organ transplantation. Together, the portfolio gives Bridge to Life a differentiated position spanning both established preservation and next-generation machine perfusion.