Cryoport ups cold chain presence on regenerative med potential
For the fourth quarter 2017, temperature-controlled logistics firm Cryoport reported sales of $3.3m, up 49% on the same period 2016.
Biopharma, which represents 76% of Cryoport’s business, was up 63% year-on-year and attributed to increased need for cell-based regenerative immunotherapies services, something Cryoport said drove the firm to begin construction on two new logistics centres.
“In order to support our current forecast of demand in all of our markets construction is underway for two new state-of-the-art Cryoport Global Logistics centers, one located in the Eastern United States, and the other in the Netherlands,” CEO Jerrell Shelton said in a conference call yesterday.
The two facilities will open in the first half of this year, he told investors, with further expansions likely to be opportunistic.
Cryoport has deals with numerous cell and gene therapy makers, including Celgene, Johnson & Johnson, and Bluebird. Furthermore, both Novartis and Gilead contract the firm to support their respective commercialised chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel).
“Cryoport now supports a total of 214 clinical trials in the regenerative medicine space, up from 129 trials just a year ago. This increase was driven by new clients as well as existing clients expanding their programs,” said Shelton.
“As we have seen with Novartis and Gilead, these trials represent major embedded revenue growth for our company, as our biopharma client's progress through the clinical phases, and successful therapy candidates ultimately reach commercialisation.”
McKesson collaboration
And last week Cryoport inked a deal with McKesson Specialty Health to provide logistics services to support the delivery of cell and gene therapies to patients at the point of care.
“This new relationship will allow us to further extend and amplify our cold chain logistics expertise with McKesson's end-to-end patient access and support services focused on assisting patients entering treatment through accelerated patient on-boarding, prior authorisations, and educational support programmes,” Shelton said on the call.
“Both companies recognise the complex support, ecosystem that is emerging as regenerative therapies reach commercialisation, and we think, our collaboration underscores Cryoport's leadership position and growing reach.”
