Cell 'banking' business will grow 16%+ annually, to $9.87 billion in 2022

New therapies

based on manipulating human cells—mostly stem cells, but including others—is a lively area of clinical research, even as various efforts are being made globally to apply cell therapies to patients. Another driver of the activity is regenerative medicine: using cells to create tissues or treatments for chronic conditions. There are likely not to be factories cranking out such therapies in the future—when and if these therapies are approved for use—but rather, the use of stocks of cells kept in cell banks or biobanks. Today, that storage business is worth nearly $3 billion, and is projected to be growing by 16.4% CAGR, to almost $10 billion in 2022, says Grand View Research, a market research company in San Francisco.

Grand View divides the cell banking business into three components: cell bank preparation, bank storage, and bank characterization and testing. “Of these, storage accounted for the largest share of revenue owing to sophisticated preservation needs which are a prerequisite to the proper maintenance of either master cell bank or working banks. Technologically advanced cryopreservation techniques are expected to fuel the growth of this market throughout the forecast period.”

The market is further characterized by types of cells:

• Cord stem cell
• Embryonic stem cell
• Adult stem cell
• Dental stem cell
• IPS stem cell
• Non-stem cell.

Another slice of the activity is by “outsourcing phase:” storage, stability testing, safety testing and cell bank preparation. The testing phase further subdivides:

• Viral cell bank safety
• Microbial cell bank safety
• Gene expression
• Karyology
• Gene sequencing.

Among outsourcing providers, Grand View names these key global players: BioReliance, BioOutsource (Sartorious), BSL Bioservice, Cleancells, Charles River Laboratories, Covance, GlobalStem Inc., Goodwin Biotechnology Inc., Lonza, PX’Therapeutics SA, SGS Life Sciences, Texcell, Toxikon Corporation, Wuxi Apptec, Reliance Life Sciences, LifeCell International Pvt. Ltd., Cryobanks International India, Cryo-Cell International Inc., Tran-Scell Biologics, Pvt. Ltd., and CordLife.

Further information is available at www.grandviewresearch.com.