Chelmsford, MA 11/29/16; San Rafael, CA 11/29/16—Automation and cryogenic solutions provider Brooks Automation has acquired Cool Lab, a subsidiary of R&D firm BioCision, for $5 million in cash and non-cash consideration up to $9 million. Cool Lab supplies applications for cooling and freezing samples, controlled-rate freezing, portable cryogenic transport, and archival storage solutions for temperature-sensitive workflows. Cool Lab’s 12-month revenue totaled $5 million. Brooks held an equity interest in the company and supported the company with convertible debt and term note financing (see IBO 4/30/14). The companies codeveloped the CryoPod for portable cryogenic transport. “This acquisition is a successful outcome from our long partnership with BioCision,” noted Dusty Tenney, president of Brooks Life Science Systems. “The product line extends our range of comprehensive sample management solutions that provide sample integrity, quality and utility across the cold chain of custody for our customers.” The non-cash consideration includes Brooks’ repurchase of its equity ownership and cancellation of the convertible debt securities, term notes and related interest receivables.

The product lines acquired by Brooks include the CryoPod mobile carrier, CoolBox ice-free sample preparation systems and CoolCell cell cryopreservation systems, which were BioCision’s primary product lines. Corning Life Sciences currently distributes Cool Lab products globally, excluding the CryoPod, and will continue to do so.

On the same day, BioCision announced the launch of MedCision, a new company focused on automation for preclinical and clinical processes, including point-of-care settings. MedCision’s initial product will be BioCision’s ThawSTAR cell thawing platform. “MedCision will be a leader in developing and commercializing innovative instruments for crucial processes in the post-manufacturing cell and gene therapy space,” commented BioCision CEO Rolf O. Ehrhardt, MD, PhD. Dr. Ehrhardt will serve as president and CEO of the new company, along with former senior management of BioCision.

MedCision will have less than 20 employees and will be focused on B2B sales. Dr. Ehrhardt told IBO, “The division was a very easy one. BioCision, under the Brooks leadership, continues to serve the research market with primary passive tools and devices. MedCision will serve the clinical and medical markets, with mostly active software algorithm-driven devices and instruments”. Describing the company’s ThawSTAR dry-based automated thawing system (see IBO 8/15/15), he said, “The ThawSTAR is definitely the main focus, and it has implications not just in cell therapy thawing but also in vaccine thawing, and even in preclinical settings. We are going to announce in the next few weeks a few partnerships, including cell therapy companies and vaccine manufacturers.” He said that many experts believe thawing is the most critical step post manufacturing for cell therapy. Current water-based thawing systems can introduce variability and raise contamination concerns.

The primary applications settings for the ThawSTAR will be point-of-care settings and pharmacies, following shipment of frozen samples. Automation and standardization will be especially critical for cell therapy, according to Dr. Ehrhardt. “This is the first drug product that is going to be relatively nonstable… it is a live drug product,” he said.  “The idea right now is to automate as much as possible to get a reproducible drug.”