BioLife Solutions, Inc., a leading developer and supplier of a portfolio of best-in-class bioproduction tools for cell and gene therapies, today announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Custom Biogenic Systems, Inc. (“CBS”), a privately held company.
BioLife Solutions, founded in 1987, headquartered in the Greater Seattle Area, west coast USA, is the leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of proprietary biopreservation media for cells and tissues. HypoThermosol® hypothermic storage and CryoStor® cryopreservation freeze media are highly valuable in the regenerative medicine, biobanking and drug discovery markets. The recently acquired ThawStar® family of automated cell thawing products and evo cold chain management system reduce therapeutic and economic risk for cell and gene therapy developers by reducing the potential of administering a non-viable dose.
Also founded in 1987, CBS, located near Detroit, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of state-of-the-art liquid nitrogen laboratory freezers, cryogenic equipment and accessories. In addition to cryopreservation equipment, CBS supplies upright freezer racks, chest freezer racks, liquid nitrogen freezer racks, canisters / cassettes and frames, as well as laboratory boxes and dividers. By understanding the needs of the biotechnology industry, CBS provides superior laboratory freezers and complete inventory control rack systems that support veterinarian, horticulture, pharmaceutical, industrial, scientific and research laboratories and banks.
The Global Cryopreservation Equipment Market, published by Market Research, estimates that the worldwide demand for liquid nitrogen freezers and other storage products will exceed $2 billion in 2020.
BioLife expects the following benefits from the CBS acquisition, including:
- Sales and Marketing Leverage: BioLife expects to leverage existing relationships among its customer base of leading cell and gene therapy companies in the regenerative medicine market. CBS’ advanced liquid nitrogen freezers play a critical role in the safe storage of high-value starting material, and manufactured cell and gene therapy products.
- Manufacturing Capacity: To reduce reliance on non-U.S. suppliers and to lower costs, BioLife plans to leverage CBS’ engineering and manufacturing expertise to provide certain hardware components of the evo cold chain management system.
“We are keenly focused on assembling a robust portfolio of best-in-class cell and gene therapy bioproduction tools to reach our next financial milestone of $100 million in annual revenue. We believe that a hallmark of CBS products is innovative technologies realized through the company’s design and engineering expertise, and excellent automated manufacturing capabilities. We plan to integrate CBS’ operations to grow the product line, diversify our revenue and reduce supply chain costs for our evo® dry vapor shippers by having certain components manufactured by CBS. We believe that the acquisition of CBS will allow us to deepen engagement with our cell and gene therapy customers, and increase touchpoints in their manufacturing, storage and distribution workflows.” – Mike Rice, BioLife President & CEO
“The entire CBS team is excited to join BioLife. I started the company in 1987 with a goal to design and offer advanced liquid nitrogen freezers to safely store high-value biologic material. I’m thrilled to start this next chapter in the history of CBS and to leverage BioLife’s sales and marketing power, and their relationships in the cell and gene therapy industry.” – John Brothers, CBS founder & former CEO, now Vice President, Advanced Freezer Technologies at BioLife
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