01 Normothermic Machine Perfusion Gains Ground The organ preservation market analysis shows that the need to preserve marginal and extended-criteria donor organs is supporting wider adoption of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) as an alternative to conventional cold storage. The transition toward warm, oxygenated perfusion keeps organs metabolically active and provides additional time for functional assessment, with NHS Blood and Transplant noting that its Assessment and Recovery Centres can provide up to 24 hours of additional testing and decision-making time for selected organs. The NHSBT programme estimates that a fully established national system could enable up to 750 additional liver, lung, and kidney transplants annually, equivalent to about a 19% increase in current activity.
02 Organ Viability Assessment Becomes More Data-Driven The need for more objective decisions on marginal donor organs is supporting greater use of measurable physiological and biochemical indicators during organ preservation. The transition toward data-based assessment uses parameters such as lactate levels, perfusion flow, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and ischemic-time measurements to provide functional information before transplantation. In 2025, the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) considered expanding machine-perfusion data collection covering lactate, hematocrit, perfusion type, device information, and time on and off the machine, strengthening standardized data use in organ viability assessment.
01 Expansion of Donation After Circulatory Death and Use of Marginal Donor Organs Drive Market The wider adoption of donation after circulatory death (DCD) is expanding the supply of organs available for transplantation and creating stronger demand for dependable preservation systems. The growing use of DCD places greater emphasis on rapid organ recovery, controlled preservation, and transport because organs can deteriorate quickly after circulation stops. In the U.S., approximately 8,000 DCD donors had at least one organ recovered in 2025, representing 49.2% of deceased donors with recovered organs, according to HRSA. This expansion supports applications such as DCD kidney and liver recovery, where preservation systems help maintain organ quality between procurement and transplantation.The need to expand the available donor pool is increasing demand for preservation solutions that can support organs from donors with more complex clinical profiles. Better preservation capacity gives transplant centers greater flexibility to evaluate and utilize organs that may otherwise face a higher risk of nonuse, strengthening the supply of transplantable organs. The OPTN's 2025 policies specifically address acceptance of kidneys from deceased donors with KDPI scores above 85% and from DCD donors, reflecting continued efforts to broaden organ utilization. Applications such as higher-risk kidney recovery create demand for reliable preservation, transportation, and organ-handling systems that can support transplantation decisions.
01 High Cost of Advanced Preservation Systems and Shortage of Skilled Organ-Perfusion Specialists Restrain Market Expansion The high cost of machine perfusion devices, specialized consumables, monitoring equipment, and supporting infrastructure raises the upfront investment for transplant centers. These costs can make advanced preservation less economically attractive for facilities with limited budgets or lower transplant volumes. The resulting financial barrier can delay equipment purchases and restrict adoption across cost-sensitive healthcare systems.The shortage of personnel with expertise in machine perfusion, organ assessment, and preservation protocols creates an operational barrier for healthcare providers. Limited access to specialized staff can increase training requirements and make advanced preservation systems more difficult to integrate into existing transplant workflows. This constraint can slow adoption, particularly among centers without established organ-perfusion capabilities.
01 Development of Advanced Organ Transportation Solutions and Emergence of Long-Term Organ Preservation Technologies Offers Growth Opportunities Organ procurement organizations, transplant centers, medical-device manufacturers, and specialized logistics providers can benefit from advanced transportation solutions that maintain organ quality across longer journeys. In 2025, Paragonix KidneyVault enabled a donor kidney to travel more than 4,800 km from Arizona to Puerto Rico across two commercial flights and more than 24 hours of ischemic time, demonstrating the commercial potential of portable preservation and transport systems. Revenue opportunities include portable equipment, consumables, monitoring systems, and specialized logistics services, with Paragonix Technologies already commercializing KidneyVault for kidney preservation and transportation.Biotechnology companies, transplant technology developers, research institutions, and pharmaceutical organizations can benefit from technologies that extend preservation windows and provide greater flexibility in organ allocation and logistics. OrganOx's metra platform had been used in more than 5,000 liver transplants by May 2025, supporting demand for technologies that maintain organs in a metabolically active state for extended periods. The company's 2025 FDA approval for operation during air transport further expands the addressable market, while revenue avenues include preservation platforms, disposables, monitoring systems, and related services, contributing to organ preservation market growth.
01 Complexity of Organ Transport and Logistics and Transportation Reliability and Airline Constraints Hinders Growth Organ preservation companies face tightly coordinated transport requirements because organs must move between donor hospitals, airports, recovery centers, and transplant hospitals within limited preservation windows. In 2025, an HRSA safety analysis identified transport logistics as 11% of indirect-harm events, with lost-in-transit and airline delays among the reported issues. These disruptions can reduce the effective use of preservation technologies and make nationwide commercial expansion more difficult.Dependence on commercial aviation creates an operational challenge for preservation providers whose technologies are designed for time-sensitive organ movement. A 2025 UNOS report highlighted that 2.5% of unused organs were attributed to transportation issues, while cargo handling can introduce delays when airport cargo offices or flight schedules do not align with transplant timelines. These real-world disruptions can limit the geographic reach of preservation systems and reduce the reliability of organ-transfer networks.
June 2026 XVIVO Perfusion expanded its organ preservation portfolio by introducing advanced machine perfusion technologies designed to improve the viability and utilization of donor lungs, kidneys, and livers for transplantation.
February 2026 OrganOx strengthened its transplant solutions with next-generation normothermic liver perfusion systems, enabling extended organ preservation and improved post-transplant clinical outcomes.
November 2025 Paragonix Technologies expanded its organ preservation product portfolio by launching enhanced preservation systems for heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplantation with advanced temperature monitoring capabilities.
August 2025 TransMedics Group advanced its Organ Care System (OCS™) platform through expanded clinical adoption and strategic partnerships to support ex vivo organ perfusion and long-distance organ transportation.