Government backed startup that’s at the forefront of manufacturing lab-grown red blood cells in an effort to circumvent these persisting shortages within the U.S. blood supply is Safi Biotherapeutics. The startup received more than $16 million from the US Department of Defense and just raised a $5 million seed round led by J2 Ventures to manufacture very low-cost red blood cells at scale.
The American Red Cross issued a national emergency after its blood supply was depleted by 25% from usual reserves due to a severe blood shortage. The crisis has become so desperate that hospitals and health care providers have started making difficult decisions since doctors now have to prioritize those who would receive blood transfusions. It is literally a matter of life and death. Safi’s idea provides an alternative source of red blood cells, which will one day become commercial.
Whereas the science behind lab-grown red blood is advancing all the time, the process remains rather cost-intensive and complicated. While in 2022 researchers in the UK successfully transplanted an extremely small amount of transfused lab-grown blood during a clinical trial, scaling up that technology remains one of the biggest hurdles to broader use. According to Saif’s CEO Doug McConnell, he believes the company might transcend the challenges associated with this process with its shift from “science fiction to science.”
The company is currently collaborating with the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in New Hampshire to make the manufacturing process flawless. Safi uses progenitor cells that come from stem cells in bone marrow as a precursor to create red blood cells. These cells grow in a bioreactor, where their development is carefully monitored to optimize production efficiency.
Currently, Safi can produce one unit of blood for less than $2,000, with a long-term goal of reducing costs to under $500 per unit. The company aims at adding its production up to 100 units per bioreactor so that the potential can be increased to 100 blood bags produced from a single donation by the stem cells. The commercial launch of the company will still take a number of years; production is estimated to hit 100,000 units in the first year.
With promised funding and regulatory backing, Safi is a respite that might, after all, be sustainable for solving this long-standing crisis of blood deficiency.
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