Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Transmedics
Search every verified Waleed Hassanein interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Waleed Hassanein, founder, president, and CEO of TransMedics, announced in May 2025 plans to establish a second headquarters in Mirandola, Italy, describing the location as having the technical expertise and talent pool for medical device disposables. He stated that the company will build a research and development facility for next-generation perfusion systems and later transition to manufacturing clean-room production of disposable units. Hassanein said the company has been called "the Ferrari of transplant perfusion devices" and that locating in the same region as Ferrari would "make that rumor a reality." He declined to comment on politics but said the company's mission is to help patients and save lives, adding that they will find a way to overcome geopolitical challenges. In 2022, Hassanein expressed enthusiasm for the ISHLT annual meeting returning to Boston and said TransMedics looked forward to sharing results of clinical trials involving its Organ Care System heart and lung technologies, as well as a national program structure aimed at maximizing donor organ utilization. In 2017, he described the Organ Care System as a portable device that maintains organs in a living state outside the body by perfusing them with warm, oxygenated blood, contrasting it with cold storage, which he said limits organ viability to 3-6 hours. He noted that at the time, only 2-3 out of every 10 donated organs were used with cold storage, and that TransMedics had raised close to $300 million in investment and performed more than 800 successful transplants.
“Well, it was an easy choice for us because Miranda has the technical expertise, the history, the talent pool. So for us, when we want to build an innovation center, we wanted to be in the best place for medical device disposables and perfusion disposables. Miranda was at the top of the list.”
“We will start with building a state-of-the-art innovation R&D facility focusing on our next-generation perfusion systems disposables, and then from there once we've developed the entire new platform we will transition into manufacturing as well, clean room production for all of our disposable units.”
“Our goal is to establish a second headquarters located in Miranda, Italy, that we can supply the world with transplant technologies from Boston and Miranda.”
“We've always been called the Ferrari of transplant perfusion devices, so we couldn't find a better opportunity to be in the same region with the real Ferrari. We'll make that rumor a reality.”
“I have a different view. The people are different than the politicians and I can't comment on the politics, but for us our mission is clear. We are here to help patients, to save lives, and if we focus on that mission we will make it, whether from Miranda or from Boston.”
“We are here to serve the patients and for me we will find a way to overcome these geopolitical challenges.”
“I am thrilled to welcome the ISHLT 2022 annual meeting back to Boston, and we're hopeful that we can all meet live and in person.”
“We are looking forward to sharing the results of several seminal clinical trials involving our organ care system, heart and lung technologies as well as the national OCS program structure designed to maximize donor organ utilization for transplants.”
“We strongly believe that this data will have a transformative impact on both DBD and DCD heart and lung transplantation globally.”
“The Organ Care System is the only portable medical device designed to maintain human organs in their normal physiologic living condition outside the human body.”
“We do that by continuously perfusing the organ with warm, oxygenated and nutrient enriched blood to make the organs believe they are still in the body.”
“For the last four decades organ preservation for transplant was limited to cold storage, literally a picnic cooler filled with ice. The organ has 3 to 6 hours maximum to be transported from the donor to the recipient. Every minute goes by the organ is dying in this condition.”
“We only use 2-3 out of every 10 donated available human organs today with the cold ischemic storage.”
“Due to the strength of our global patent portfolio TransMedics was able to raise close to 300 million dollars of investment to help develop and commercialise the Organ Care System platform.”
“Today we have more than 800 successful transplants performed.”
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