Terumo Corporation has completed its acquisition of OrganOx, an Oxford University spinout specializing in kidney and liver transplantation.

The deal, which was first announced in August of this year, was valued at about $1.5 billion. It signaled the largest exit in Oxford’s spinout portfolio to date, and was the first that surpassed £1 billion. It’s also the first exit under the pioneering partnership between Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science and venture capital fund Technikos that led to the creation of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME).

OrganOx was founded in 2008 by engineering professor Constantin Coussios OBE FREng FMedSci and transplant surgeon Professor Peter Friend FMedSci through Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences.

The company develops organ preservation technology that lets donor organs continue functioning ex vivo for much longer than traditional methods. Its Normothermic Machine Perfusion (NMP) technology circulates warm, oxygenated blood-like fluid through the organ to replicate condition in vivo so organ function can be assessed in real time.

OrganOx’s tech has been adopted in over 7,500 transplants to date and was recognized with the 2025 MacRobert Award, the UK’s most prestigious engineering innovation prize. Professor Coussios said the technology was uniquely enabled by Oxford’s cross-disciplinary innovation ecosystem.

“From the outset our aim was to solve one of transplantation’s greatest challenges: preserving organs in a viable state for longer, so as to make it possible to assess and potentially transplant what was previously thought untransplantable,” Dr. Coussios told the press. “Seeing that vision realized for the benefit of patients across 4 continents has been incredibly rewarding, and this acquisition will further enhance the global reach and impact of Oxford’s innovative science.”

Terumo will gain OrganOx’s approximately 200 employees as it enters the organ transplantation sector for the first time. The company said it will pursue synergies between the two companies by harnessing its assets alongside the new OrganOx technology.

“Together with OrganOx, Terumo will offer innovative solutions to address the challenges faced by both transplant patients and healthcare professionals,” the Tokyo, Japan-based company said in a press release.