Cryoport Opens New CoE in Europe
The 13,400 square-foot Belgium site will expand the company’s branded standardized bioprocessing, cryopreservation, and distribution solution for the cell therapy market, with a focus on leukapheresis starting materials.
Cryoport, a temperature-controlled supply chain solution provider for the life sciences industry, has opened its newest IntegriCell facility in Villers-le-Bouillet, Liege, Belgium.1
IntegriCell is the company’s branded standardized bioprocessing, cryopreservation, and distribution solution for the cell therapy market. The solution is designed to enhance cell therapy manufacturing efficiency and flexibility, while providing safety, quality and product stability for these treatments in the process.
In this particular case, the Center of Excellence (CoE) is now fully operational and ready to support the development and commercialization of cell-based therapies with advanced cryopreservation solutions for leukapheresis, a process that separates and collect white blood cells.
The 13,400 square-foot plant is good manufacturing practice (GMP) compliant, with the ability to cryopreserve over 1,100 leukapheresis products per year, including cryopreserved leukopaks that are manufacture-ready. Being that the Belgium location is considered Cryoport Systems’ European Center of Excellence, the facility will then allocate some cryopreservation processes to other Cryoport facilities.
"Our new IntegriCell Belgium facility extends our global reach and strengthens our ability to deliver consistent, high-quality cryopreservation solutions for the cell therapy community," said Jerrell Shelton, CEO of Cryoport. “This Center of Excellence, together with our Houston, TX facility, provides the industry with a critical resource to standardize and improve how we preserve cellular starting materials, helping bring transformative therapies to patients more efficiently. With room for future expansion, this facility is designed to adapt and expand with our clients’ and the market’s evolving needs.”
After last year’s financial results did not live up to the company’s standards, the company is continuing to find news way to innovate, as it rides the ebbs and flows of the market.
“We weren’t happy with flat revenue in 2023, but you have to recognize that this is still a nascent industry, and it will not have straight-line growth from year to year,” mentioned Shelton in a previous interview with Pharma Commerce.2 “We’re in the early stages of how the practice of medicine is changing,” he adds, noting the recent approvals of therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and sickle-cell disease.
The company also has an Elite -80°C Ultra Cold Shipper—available in two sizes—which is intended to support gene therapies that are not able to be stored and shipped in a cryogenic environment.
References
1. Cryoport Expands IntegriCell Cryopreservation Services Solution with Opening of New Center of Excellence in Europe. Cryoport. November 12, 2024. Accessed November 13, 2024. https://ir.cryoportinc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/383/cryoport-expands-integricell-cryopreservation-services-solution-with-opening-of-new-center-of-excellence-in-europe
2. Basta N. The Pharma Cold Chain: More Visible, More Sustainable—and Colder. Pharmaceutical Commerce. April 3, 2024. https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/the-pharma-cold-chain-more-visible-more-sustainable-and-colder
