Irish businessman leads US company into deal with UK Armed Forces

James Cox

Irish entrepreneur Richard Meehan has led the Boston based company Velico in securing a £4.9 million (€5.7 million) contract with the UK Armed Forces and the NHS to support the commencement of clinical trials using the company’s development of spray dried plasma.

Velico’s spray dried plasma "hydrates within minutes and will play a vital role in reducing the number of preventable deaths from bleeding". The company’s solution has been designed for use in life-saving roles.

Businessman Meehan joined Velico in 2021 as CEO and president.

Mr Meehan describes Velico as a "restart-up" and commenced refocusing the company’s direction at delivering spray dried plasma solutions to front line services.

The company is partially funded by BARDA (US government Agency) and over $100 million has been invested to date to develop this technology. In late 2022, Velico began a Phase I safety study for their Frontline On Demand Plasma (ODP) spray demand plasma product in a multi-centre, dose escalation clinical trial.

Mr Meehan said: “Our company is laser focused on providing a spray dried plasma solution and committed to working with front line heroes in A&E hospitals, paramedics, and military personnel. This summer's announcement allows us to accelerate our clinical trials in the UK with our Frontline ODP system. Plasma has been used since World War II to reduce preventable deaths, and it has taken until now for a decentralised production system to be developed”

He added: "Plasma plays a key role in the prevention of trauma-induced blood loss. Dried plasma has been a much sought-after goal for over two decades now and this trial marks a significant milestone in our mission to provide a lifesaving product for the medical and emergency response community,”

During this summer, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed support for Velico trials to rapidly advance its 'Blood Far Forward Programme' which aims to deliver plasma within 30 minutes to injured personnel.

Velico’s mission "is to develop a suite of lifesaving, blood-based technologies and products to improve instant access to rapid transfusion at a critical stage of care".

Velico is a private, clinical-stage medical technology company headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Lead by an Irish American management team, Velico have just opened an office in Dublin to house their international division.