“We are excited to welcome Daan Kok to be Hemanext’s European leader. He brings a wealth of experience in Hematology and operations in Europe and has an outstanding track record of innovation and driving strong growth”, said Hemanext President and CEO Martin Cannon. “Hemanext ground-breaking research and initiatives aim at improving the quality of red blood cells by developing innovative technologies and I cannot think of a more qualified and experienced candidate than Daan to drive Hemanext’s business in EMEA in 2022 and beyond.”
“Hemanext technology has the potential to transform how blood centers approach RBC processing and storage which could benefit all patients requiring transfusions”, said Daan Kok. “It is for these reasons that I am joining an incredible team to be a part of such an important mission.”
Daan joins Hemanext from bluebird bio where he held the roles of VP & GM Expansion Markets, EMEA, and VP of Commercial Operations, Europe. Prior to bluebird, Daan worked for ten years at Celgene as Business Unit Director Hematology and Oncology in Belgium, Luxembourg, and several Nordic countries and held Strategic Planning and Business Development, Sales, and Marketing management positions.
About Hemanext
Hemanext is a privately held medical technology company based in Lexington, MA that is dedicated to improving the quality, safety, efficacy, and cost of transfusion therapy. The company’s research and development efforts center on the study of hypoxically stored red blood cells (RBCs). The company’s aim is to significantly improve the quality of stored RBCs by limiting oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the storage environment.
Hemanext Key Milestones
- April 7, 2021: Hemanext ONE® received CE Mark certification for sale in the European market.
- November 16, 2021: Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB), the leading international not-for-profit association for transfusion medicine and biotherapies, gave its Research Innovation in Scientific Excellence (RISE) award to a scientific paper co-written by the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Andrew Dunham, PhD, and Principal Scientist, Tatsuro Yoshida, PhD.
- December 30, 2021: Hemanext ONE® was submitted for marketing authorization review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The product is currently available in the United States for investigational use only, pending market authorization from the FDA.
- January 6, 2022: The Hemanext ONE® technology became the first system providing both blood processing and storage to be recognized by AABB for compliance with its industry-recognized quality and safety standards SCoPE Program. The accreditation from AABB confirms that Hemanext’s technology meets the industry-leading requirements laid out by the association.
- February 14, 2022: Hemanext raised an additional $8M, building on the first round of $15M that was raised in September of 2021. This successfully closed Series A-4 equity funding round, bringing the total raised to more than $100 million.
Visit Hemanext.com to learn more about the Company.
Hemanext Media Contact:
Stacy Smith
Associate Director Marketing Communications
stacy.smith@hemanext.com