Benzinga | Dec 1, 2020 08:04AM EST

BioLife Solutions Announces Co-Investments With Partner Casdin Capital; Investments Include iVexSol And PanTHERA CryoSolutions

BOTHELL, Wash., Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLFS) ("BioLife" or the "Company"), a leading developer and supplier of a portfolio of class-defining bioproduction products and services for cell and gene therapies, today announced two new co-investments with innovation accelerator partner Casdin Capital. The first is a re-investment in iVexSol, a vector manufacturing company founded on a proprietary, next-generation, stable lentiviral vector production process. BioLife Solutions invested $1 million and Casdin invested $4 million in a $15.2 million Series A financing round which was led by a third undisclosed strategic investor. BioLife and Casdin also each converted their respective previous $1.1 million debt into equity in this round.

In a new joint investment, BioLife and Casdin also each agreed to invest $1 million in privately held PanTHERA CryoSolutions, a Canadian startup company that is developing next generation cryopreservation solutions incorporating ice recrystallization inhibitor (IRI) intellectual property. Subject to closing conditions, BioLife will execute a development and license agreement with PanTHERA, under which, BioLife will make milestone development payments up to $2 million over the next 24 months in exchange for exclusive, perpetual, worldwide marketing and distribution rights to the technology for use in cell and gene therapy applications.

Mike Rice, BioLife's CEO, remarked, "Drs. Rod Rietze and Michael Greene and the iVexSol team continue to make progress scaling iVexSol's proprietary manufacturing process. iVexSol has the real potential to disrupt the current viral vector manufacturing process which today results in lower yield and high cost, helping to accelerate the development of novel, life-saving cell and gene therapies. We also secured access to PanTHERA's novel and potentially disruptive IRI technology, which may form the basis of a next generation freeze media product line. We've known Drs. Jason Acker and Robert Ben of PanTHERA for many years and respect the rigor of their work."

"Crossing the early stage chasm with next generation technology is particularly difficult in this field." Eli Casdin, Managing Director at Casdin Capital, commented, "It's exciting to see the innovation accelerator build momentum, connecting entrepreneurs with investment capital, operational experience and commercial distribution. We look forward to making more investments in the months and years ahead."

Aby J. Mathew, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at BioLife and Shaun Rodriguez, Director of Life Science Research at Casdin will join the PanTHERA board of directors at closing. Casdin also has a board observer seat at iVexSol.