Those are interesting reports with a lot of useful data. I was looking to break down by organ type the 103k waitlist persons and 43k actual organ transplants you mentioned, and found something very surprising.
In 2023, total liver transplants were 10,660 and 9,601 were on the waitlist as of yesterday. For heart in 2022 there was 4,169 transplants, and the waitlist as of March 2024 was 3,436 people. So where are the huge remaining rest of the organs in the 103k waitlist and 43k transplants?
It turns out kidney makes up about 90,000 of the waitlist, and about 25k of the actual transplants. Found a stat that the average kidney transplant costs about $440k.
I asked AI why Transmedics may not be in the kidney business and it said one reason could be kidneys can work for cold profusion, or basically be kept on ice. It also said that Transmedics may have chosen to focus on the more challenging preservation requirements for liver, heart, and lung.
I was searching back in Transmedics previous earnings calls to see when kidney got mentioned and it’s three reports ago there was any mention at all, but I found what I was looking for because the CEO said,
We are going to expand into kidneys. But for me, the priority right now is to solidify the logistics and solidify the lung, getting the lung to contribute to our growth trajectory at least close to the heart. And then from there, we’re going to move into kidneys, but it’s definitely our next frontier.
Currently it sounds like the OCS system is not approved for kidney, and I’m completely unclear if kidney even needs this technology?
I am also now wondering if Transmedics can transport kidneys for other transplant companies if they are not the ones dealing with kidney?