IVI Institute said Oct. 15 it had acquired The World Egg and Sperm Bank (TWESB), a Scottsdale, Arizona, provider of donor eggs and sperm. IVI said the deal is intended to broaden reproductive services for patients and fertility clinics in the United States and Australia. The U.S. announcement was posted at 7:31 a.m. ET.
The announcement did not specify which services are planned for each market or give a rollout timetable. It also did not disclose the transaction price, structure, ownership stake or closing details.
TWESB founder Diana Thomas said the bank would maintain its existing clinic relationships. TWESB reports access to more than 500 screened donors and says its operation handles donor recruitment, qualification, cycling and storage in-house.
IVI describes its network as spanning 15 countries, with more than 200 locations. The acquisition brings a donor-bank operation into that international group, though IVI has not outlined how the businesses will be integrated.
TWESB says its bank began operating in 2004 and calls itself the earliest independent egg bank in the U.S. Its history page traces Thomas’s earlier egg-donor agency work to 1996, a separate milestone.
IVI CEO Javier Sanchez-Prieto linked demand for donor eggs and sperm to women delaying their first pregnancies. The company cited its separate Fertility Barometer survey, which covered 24,074 women ages 19 to 49 in nine countries from May 16 to July 3, 2026.
In the U.S. results, IVI reported that 34% of women who named a target age for starting a family had their first child later than they wanted. The company did not quantify how the acquisition might affect patient access, treatment costs, donor choices or outcomes.
