Established by a team of doctors dedicated to serving the life sciences, Cryoport Systems continues to deliver expert logistics and supply chain support
Cryoport, Inc. is a global family of companies with a uniquely adaptable and collaborative approach to temperature-controlled supply chain solutions. Cryoport, Inc. is a leader in temperature-controlled supply chain solutions for the life sciences industry. Through its industry-leading subsidiary companies, Cryoport Systems, CRYOPDP, MVE Biological Solutions, and CRYOGENE, the company provides an ever-evolving platform of critical products and solutions including advanced packaging, informatics, specialty logistics services, bio-storage services, and cryogenic systems. Its primary focus is on addressing the critical temperature-controlled supply chain needs of the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy market. Founded in 1999, the organization is listed on the NASDAQ exchange, and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Cryoport Systems is a market leader in globally integrated temperature-controlled supply chain support for critical, irreplaceable products and materials in the life sciences industry. It is a proud single provider that supports various aspects of the life sciences supply chain. 
CRYOPDP, on the other hand, is a premier logistics partner for global biopharmaceutical and clinical trials companies within the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sectors. The company provides comprehensive specialty courier services and cutting-edge temperature-controlled solutions across more than 135 countries, which contributes significantly to advancing global healthcare.
For more than half a century, MVE Biological Solutions has been the preferred choice for cryogenic storage and shipper systems in the life sciences. Its diverse customer base includes biopharmaceutical companies, producers of cell and gene therapies, vaccine manufacturers, IVF clinics, hospitals, medical research facilities, government institutions, biorepositories, cord blood centers, and universities. The company is also the leader in cryogenic storage and transportation systems for animal husbandry, including bovine and equine breeders and vaccine producers.
Lastly, CRYOGENE is a leading biorepository that focuses on the secure storage of biological research specimens and associated supplies. Utilizing the latest technology along with state-of-the-art software, CRYOGENE can cost-effectively fulfill clients’ bio-storage and distribution requirements.
“As the founding organization, Cryoport Systems (Cryoport) is focused on comprehensive supply chain solutions for critical, irreplaceable material. We focus on high-value materials like cell and gene therapies and support all aspects of the supply chain from cryopreservation and transportation to storage fulfilment, kitting, and secondary labelling, as well as consulting services,” begins Mark Sawicki, President and CEO.
With a full-scale platform of solutions, cell therapy developers can devote more of their time and resources to their life-saving work while the Cryoport team manages the unique complexities required for all aspects of the temperature-controlled supply chain. The company’s industry-leading supply chain platform encompasses a full range of risk-mitigating solutions that integrate seamlessly with its expert logistics services for comprehensive support.
Supply chain solutions
Today, the company’s partnership capabilities have evolved beyond logistics into a robust platform of supply chain solutions that supports every stage and phase of life sciences research, development, and manufacturing processes.
“One of the key bottlenecks the industry is facing today is the ability to address patient accessibility,” Mark continues. “Patients are competing for the same bed space in all the large hospitals throughout the US and Europe, meaning that only approximately 20 percent of those patients can access the therapies. As such, most of these companies have significant initiatives underway to expand their reach beyond the large hospitals and into the community settings.
“One of the key elements here is a lack of infrastructure to support the collection and preservation of the starting material. As such, we have strategic partnerships with the National Marrow Donor Program for the Gulf Coast and Houston area where donor and collection activity are based. We carry out cryopreservation, which is a process that cools biological material to very low temperatures to ensure it doesn’t degrade during transit, which provides greater flexibility from a manufacturing schedule standpoint. We can provide a fully standardized cryopreservation process throughout the US and Europe via our two facilities in Houston, Texas and in Liege, Belgium, and we will continue to expand into other facilities as demand dictates it,” he shares.
“Alongside these initiatives, we have also expanded operations into the Stevenage area of the UK with a logistics facility, enabling us to directly support transportation-related considerations for the UK market. Likewise, we have recently completed significant expansion of our Pont-du-Château facility in France. This development increases the facility’s size from 445 square meters to 1040 square meters, enhancing our bio-storage capabilities and supporting the distribution of commercial drug products manufactured in the United States that need to be delivered within Europe.
“When we first started as an organization in the supply chain space, we opened what we referred to as logistics centers, which were strictly to support the transportation related elements of this high-value material. As we’ve continued to mature, we realized that we needed to have a more comprehensive supply chain platform. As such, we have upgraded three facilities from logistics centers to global supply chain centers, with space for cryopreservation storage fulfilment, secondary labelling, and packaging, alongside facilitating the delivery of our historical transportation services.
“The way we approach the market,” Mark continues, “is from a very different standpoint to an organization operating in the low-value, high-volume products space, where there is an acceptable loss tolerance. Those systems and processes don’t work for cell and gene therapies because the biological material is often irreplaceable and very valuable. As such, we approach the market with a much higher quality and regulatory standard related to the management of the equipment, systems, and processes around transportation. Over the years, as we’ve worked with increasing customer numbers, our product centric environment and customer service performance have resonated with our partners, leading to extremely positive referral and repeat business. In a matter of five years, we’ve gone from an almost zero percent market share to about 70 percent market share of the cell and gene clinical trial market, which is pretty exciting,” he enthuses.
“We’re the gold standard from a supply chain standpoint, and we want to continue to be the partner of choice for our clients, enabling them to focus on advancing the life sciences industry. Our mission is to support life and health by providing reliable and comprehensive temperature-controlled supply chain solutions for the sector through our advanced technologies and dedicated personnel,” he concludes. “We want to provide support to both our historical and new clients and continue to diversify our service offering to drive continued growth.”