TMRW Life Sciences enters the UK fertility market

The US fertility technology company TMRW Life Sciences has announced the adoption of its platform in the UK.

The platform, also known as CryoRobot Select (CRS), aims to modernise the management and storage of frozen eggs and embryos by combining hardware and software to track, monitor and store frozen eggs and embryos.

The Hewitt Fertility Centre in Liverpool, England, will become the first clinic outside of the US to adopt TMRW’s CRS.

Thanks to advances in assisted reproductive technology, more people than ever before are building families and storing frozen eggs and embryos. Despite this, many fertility providers still rely on manual storage systems and hand-labelled identification methods.

Over the last three years, The Hewitt Fertility Centre has completed studies to quantify the potential hazards associated with manual cryostorage of eggs and embryos following fertility treatment.

The studies demonstrated that even when clinics use witnessing systems that use radio frequency identification (RFID) and establish handling procedures, manual cryostorage for IVF is still prone to far too many potential points of failure.

Through TMRW’s CRS platform, frozen specimens will now be digitally identified and tracked with RFID technology, managed with automated robotics and remotely monitored around the clock for the first time in the UK.

The innovation is hoped to reduce potential points of failure by 94 per cent compared to manual specimen management and storage systems and help clinics reduce the risk of specimen mix-up, error and loss.

“I am delighted for Hewitt Fertility patients and for the scientific team that we can finally announce the introduction of TMRW’s CRS into our clinical pathways” said Dr Rachel Gregoire, scientific director/HFEA person responsible for The Hewitt Fertility Centres.

“It is a credit to Rebecca, lead clinical embryologist and the team who have worked tirelessly with the incredible people at TMRW to make this happen.

“Almost three years ago, Hewitt demonstrated that manual cryostorage involves potential unnecessary handling events of patient samples in storage and Hewitt is so pleased to be the first fertility clinic outside of the US to offer TMRW’s CE-marked technology for our patients.”

She added: “We thank Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust for listening to us and for investing in this technology so that the Hewitt Fertility Centres can continue to be leaders in offering safe and innovative fertility treatments.”

Louis Villalba, chief executive officer at TMRW, said: “Our partnership with The Hewitt Fertility Centre represents the first step in our global expansion and illustrates our commitment to raising the global standard of care.

“We applaud The Hewitt Fertility Centre for being the first IVF clinic outside of the United States to adopt our CE-marked and FDA cleared specimen management system.

“Our collaboration heralds a new era of safety and precision in managing frozen eggs and embryos in the UK.”

TMRW received a CE mark for its CRS platform in September, enabling commercialisation across the UK and Europe. The company said the European approval, along with an earlier clearance by the US FDA, made its robotic systems a new global standard.