The American National Red Cross Teams Up With Velico® Medical In The Blood Center Education Program

News Release: February 2023

Velico® Medical is proud to announce the company’s collaboration with the American National Red Cross in its technology development initiative, the Blood Center Education Program (BCEP).

Velico’s® BCEP is designed to provide strategic blood center partners the opportunity to get hands-on experience with its FrontlineODP system for spray drying plasma, evaluate potential integration into blood component production operations and provide critical feedback on the commissioning and operational aspects of the system.

“This collaboration reflects the shared vision of Velico® and the Red Cross of advancing life-saving blood products with the goal of improving patient care in the United States and around the world,” says Richard Meehan, President, and CEO of Velico®.

“The Red Cross has built a time-honoured legacy of leadership, innovation and an unwavering commitment to patients as reflected in its mission of ensuring that everyone in our country has access to safe, lifesaving blood and blood products,” says Pampee P. Young, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer Biomedical Services with the Red Cross.

FrontlineODP is expected to be an easy to produce, easy to use, point-of-care dried plasma product for transfusion in settings where current plasma products (most often frozen) are unavailable or inconvenient to use because of challenging cold chain logistics and short dating. With FrontlineODP, plasma could become more readily available to first responders such as ground or air ambulances, in rural hospitals where plasma is typically not stocked, for the military, and during mass casualty events.

“The Red Cross is committed to advancing novel blood and plasma products which are designed to extend care to the point of injury,” says Tim Washburn, Vice President, Product Strategy & Management with the Red Cross. “The collaboration will create the foundation for advancing dry plasma research opportunities between our organizations,” adds Bethany L Brown, PhD, MSCS, Senior Director, Transfusion Innovation and Product Development with the Red Cross.

Velico’s® development program has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under contract number 75A50121C00059.

About Velico®:

Velico® Medical, Inc. is a private US medical technology company, committed to the mission of eliminating preventable death from bleeding. Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA. Velico personnel have substantial expertise and experience in transfusion medicine and medical device development. In support of its mission, Velico is developing partnerships with civilian, government and military blood center leadership, trauma surgeons, emergency medical physicians, military medics and first responders worldwide.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

Media contact:  press@veli.co