Article: https://dbr.donga.com/kfocus/view/en/article_no/1775

Artblood Pioneers the World’s First Artificial Blood
A devastating reality where surgeries are delayed for lack of blood… University hospital doctor who witnessed it for 20 years starts a company
With a shrinking population, blood donation alone can’t meet demand… Successfully manufactures cell line-based artificial red blood cells
The only one worldwide to do it with normal cells… No immunological side effects or risk of infection

“There are not a few days when the hospital has only one pack of blood. If a surgical patient arrives on such a day, surgery is impossible.”

Artblood CEO Baek Eun-jung (49) is a specialist in transfusion medicine and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Hanyang University Hospital. The reality she witnesses every day in her 20th year as a university hospital physician is grim. Surgeries are postponed due to a shortage of blood for transfusion, and emergency patients from outside sometimes cannot be accepted. Surgeons at secondary hospitals desperately call, practically begging for blood. Because this would be illegal, it is impossible to share blood on an individual basis. In emergencies where the patient’s blood type cannot be identified, Rh-O, a universal donor blood type that does not trigger antigen-antibody reactions, must be used, but only 0.3% of the population in Korea has this blood type. The idea of maintaining sufficient universal donor blood is little more than a dream. The country’s average blood stock is 4.2 days, below the recommended level of 5 days. The number of blood donors continues to decline.

Meeting with this newspaper on January 13 at Artblood’s research institute in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Baek said, “Korea is the only country where, due to blood shortages, larger hospitals are legally required to establish a transfusion management office and assign dedicated staff,” adding, “Low birth rates are reducing the pool of potential donors, while population aging is causing transfusion demand to surge. This structural problem led us to pursue commercialization of artificial blood.”

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Artblood aims to begin clinical trials in 2029. In the short term, it plans to develop universal donor (Rh-O) red blood cells for transfusion; in the medium term, customized red blood cells for rare blood types and red blood cells for companion dogs; and in the long term, a drug delivery platform business.

Artblood forecasts that the global transfusion blood market will grow from USD 37 billion (approximately KRW 47 trillion) in 2022 to USD 54.5 billion (approximately KRW 70 trillion) by 2030. The red blood cell preparation segment accounts for about 50% of the total. Baek hopes to resolve the global blood shortage through artificial blood technology and expects the market to form naturally.

“Imagine how beneficial it would be if universal donor blood could be kept on standby in emergency rooms,” Baek said. “Imagine if no surgery were delayed due to a lack of blood. For that day, we are taking one step forward at a time.” 

Heo Jin-Seok

Source : DBR (https://dbr.donga.com/)