Vivoline Medical AB

Vivoline Medical is a medical device company based at Ideon Science Park in Lund. Vivoline Medical works in the field of thorax transplantation in close cooperation with Lund University.

Currently there are more people in need of a new lung than there are donated lungs available. Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) is today the 4th most common reason for death in the world and it is believed to be the 3rd most common within 10 years. About 25% of the patients waiting for a new lung die before they receive a new organ. This depends to a large extent on the fact that only about 20% of the donated lungs are accepted for transplantation due to uncertainty of the quality of the organs.

Professor Stig Steen has invented a method for treating and quality testing rejected lungs outside the body – ex vivo lung perfusion. The first case was published in Lancet in 2001. Vivoline Medical has in cooperation with Professor S. Steen and Lund University refined and developed the method into a CE marked product; Vivoline LS1. A pre-assembled sterile disposable kit together with a compact system makes the treatment of lungs ex vivo safe and easy. Certain conditions in the lungs can be treated and cured, and the lungs can be quality tested to be sure they work in the recipient. The goal is to increase the number lung transplantation by using a larger number of the donated lungs and thereby decrease the number of patients who die on the waiting list.

The interest has been high since the launch in 2010 and Vivoline Medical now has installed products commercially for clinical use in Europe and Australia. Research cooperation is ongoing with several centers in US. Vivoline Medical is a research and developing company that also does research in heart transplantation and in methods of how to ameliorate the quality of donated organs.