Image Credit: Adobe Stock Images/Microgen.com
Via its wholly owned subsidiary Speros FL, an innovation life sciences hub, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Cryoport, a temperature-controlled supply chain solution provider for the life sciences industry, will be collaborating in the name for biorepository services, which is centered around the storage of biological specimens.1
Cryoport’s business unit, Cryogene, specializes in these aforementioned biorepository services, and will be lending a hand to Speros.
“Our goal is to make Speros the cell and gene therapy capital of the world,” said Patrick Hwu, MD, president and CEO of Moffitt. “With the addition of Cryogene, we will accelerate discovery by igniting collaborations and partnerships across disciplines to bring new therapies to patients faster and save more lives. This collaboration builds upon Moffitt’s longstanding partnership with Cryoport’s Cryogene, and serves as an initial step in transforming our campus into a global epicenter of innovation.”
Cryogene’s biostorage plant—located next to Moffitt’s Discovery & Innovation Center for research—is expected to help lay the groundwork in helping the Speros campus become a hub for patient treatment and research in cell and gene therapies, immunotherapies, radiopharmaceuticals, proton therapies by delivering simplified access to research and clinical happenings, along with research distribution services.
“Having Cryogene’s facility with a seasoned team located directly on the Speros campus and at Moffitt’s research facility provides top-level research and biotech companies with the critical tools and infrastructure to immediately operate more effectively,” said Marshall Griswold, Cryogene’s CEO. “We all share a common goal to save and improve patients’ lives, and our team is ready and eager to assist Speros and Moffitt in fulfilling this mission.”
Biorepositories contribute to the growth and storage of cell and gene therapies, a sector projected to reach over $97 billion by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% from 2024 to 2033.2 According to Cryogene officials, its storage methods—alongside its quality control efforts—allow for scalable production and preservation of cells, quality necessary to further cell therapy progress.
“We are honored to be partnering with Moffitt’s Speros campus to support the needs of research and cancer patients receiving medical care at this world class life sciences campus and cancer center,” commented Jerrell Shelton, CEO of Cryoport. “Through our collaboration, Cryoport’s Cryogene will provide cutting-edge biostorage technologies and logistics services to support patients’ treatments, as well as the invaluable medical and biopharmaceutical research taking place at Moffitt to accelerate scientific discovery and save lives today and tomorrow.”
In other Cryoport news, the supply chain solution provider recently opened its newest IntegriCell facility in Villers-le-Bouillet, Liege, Belgium.3 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.
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.
References
1. Moffitt Cancer Center and Cryoport Announce Strategic Collaboration. PR Newswire. January 14, 2025. Accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moffitt-cancer-center-and-cryoport-announce-strategic-collaboration-302350250.html
2. Cell and Gene Therapy Market Size to Reach USD 97.33 Bn by 2033. BioSpace. April 5, 2024. Accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.biospace.com/u-s-cell-and-gene-therapy-clinical-trial-services-industry-is-rising-rapidly#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20research,18.3%25%20from%202024%20to%202033
3. Saraceno N. Cryoport Opens New CoE in Europe. Pharmaceutical Commerce. November 13, 2024. Accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/cryoport-opens-new-coe-europe