Ann Arbor Firm Helps Release Critical Product to Oxygenate Blood in COVID-19 Patients

Terumo Cardiovascular, an Ann Arbor-based global company that offers cardiovascular surgery technologies, is collaborating to sell CytoSorb to hospitals in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
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CytoSorb
CytoSorb helps medical professionals artificially add oxygen to blood. The product go to hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots in the U.S. // Photo courtesy of CytoSorbents Inc.

Terumo Cardiovascular, an Ann Arbor-based global company that offers cardiovascular surgery technologies, is collaborating to sell CytoSorb to hospitals in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

CytoSorb is an extracorporeal cytokine absorber, an integral part of the technology, that received Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in adult critically ill COVID-19 patients with imminent or confirmed respiratory failure.

“We are excited to expand our collaboration with CytoSorbents to the United States,” says Robert DeRyke, president and CEO of Terumo. “We believe our strong relationships with cardiac surgeons, perfusionists, and other front-line health care workers will help to bring this innovative therapy to critically-ill COVID-19 patients in these hard-hit areas.”

Under the initial terms of the agreement, Terumo will ensure hospitals in the hotspot states have access to the CytoSorb therapy for patients who meet strict criteria under the Emergency Use Authorization.

Terumo is a subsidiary of Japan’s Terumo Corp. CytoSorbents Corp., which is based in Monmouth Junction, N.J., manufactures CytoSorb. CytoSorbents will provide all primary clinical and technical training, customer support, and product fulfillment.

Terumo Cardiovascular supplies several perfusion products that can be used in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in accordance with the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization guidance issued in April 2020. These include its CAPIOX FX25 Oxygenator, CDI 550 Blood Parameter Monitoring System, and Terumo Advanced Perfusion 1 heart-lung machine.

The combination of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and CytoSorb enables gas exchange and cytokine storm (in which the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection with dangerous results) reduction, allowing the lungs to rest and potentially help reduce the time of mechanical lung support.

“We are pleased to work with Terumo Cardiovascular to significantly increase awareness and availability of CytoSorb to hospitals in the Southern and West Coast U.S. where COVID-19 continues to surge,” says Vincent Capponi, president and COO of CytoSorbents. “To date, CytoSorb has been used to treat over 1,200 COVID-19 patients in over 30 countries, including the U.S. under our FDA EUA.

“This is gratifying because we manufacture CytoSorb right here in the United States. CytoSorb is compatible with the vast majority of blood pumps in hospitals today, including hemoperfusion, dialysis, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), and ECMO machines. In each case, CytoSorb works to reduce cytokine storm that has been observed in many critically ill COVID-19 patients. This gives doctors broad flexibility on how to treat their patients.”