PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fresenius Kabi, a global health care company that specializes in life-saving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition, today introduced its new Lovo cell-processing system at the 2014 International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) annual meeting.
Lovo, which is designed for laboratories, is an automated “cell-washing” system that removes supernatant from target cells and stores them in viable media. Lovo automates the labor-intensive tasks of separation, washing, platelet-depletion, fluid-exchange, and concentration of living cells. The system includes single-use, pre-sterilized processing sets for sterility assurance and is designed for use in a cGMP environment.
Lovo is currently undergoing evaluation for a broad range of cell therapy applications.
“We continue to evaluate the Lovo system for multiple applications and the interim data we are seeing for T-cells has been consistent with the results to wash and concentrate white blood cells,” said William Cork, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Medical Devices for Fresenius Kabi. “Fresenius Kabi will continue to test and evaluate the use of the Lovo across a variety of cell therapy applications and generate data this year on the operation, performance and usability of the device.”
In addition to the automated washing of white blood cells, Fresenius Kabi is evaluating red blood cell and bone marrow processing applications. Data presented at the 2013 ISCT demonstrated a 99 percent reduction of supernatant in a 200 mL source product in less than seven minutes. Lovo’s output volume ranges from 50 ml to 5 L, depending on cell type, cell concentration and source volume. The 2013 data were collected using a prototype instrument.
Following its introduction at ISCT, Fresenius Kabi anticipates launching Lovo in the United States in the second half of 2014. It will be marketed to academic medical centers, biotech companies, blood centers and facilities that process cells for clinical trials.
“Quality, consistency and speed are essential to institutions worldwide that process cells for patient care and research,” said Christian Hauer, president, Medical Devices for Fresenius Kabi. “Lovo will automate time-consuming manual processes for faster, easier and more consistent results, and it offers the enhanced flexibility to process different cell lines.”
To learn more about Lovo, visit www.fresenius-kabi.us/lovo or stop by the Fresenius Kabi booth (booth 71) during the 20th Annual ISCT in Paris, which is being held April 23-26, 2014.
About Fresenius Kabi
Fresenius Kabi is a global health care company that specializes in medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition. The company’s products and services are used to help care for critically and chronically ill patients.