Bristol-Meyers Squibb warms to Cryosite

Multinational pharma Bristol-Myers Squibb has engaged Sydney-based cryogenic-storage company Cryosite (ASX:CTE) to manage its clinical trial supply logistics in Australia and New Zealand.

Cryosite MD Gordon Milliken said the company would work with Bristol-Myers Squibb locally, and with its Belgian clinical-supplies operation to ensure the secure storage and shipping of clinical trial supplies to investigators throughout Australia and New Zealand.

With a recent survey estimating that there are at least 1000 clinical trials underway in the two countries – around half of them Phase III trials - Milliken said Cryosite had “almost unlimited scope” to develop its cryogenic storage business.

Cryosite marketing manager, Dr Roisin Deane, also announced today that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has awarded the company an expanded Good Manufacturing Practice licence, covering its cord blood, adult stem cell, and cell bank storage services, and some of its clinical-trial logistics services.

Deane described the latest tick from the TGA as a “milestone”, It represented official recognition of the company’s high level of performance in key market segments, and gave Cryosite a significant competitive advantage in key areas including the cord blood and clinical trial services.

Cryosite, which listed on the ASX in 2002, provides ultra-cold and cryogenic storage services to four different market segments.

It collects, processes and stores stem cells from umbilical-cord blood for private us, stores and distributes temperature-critical biological and biomedical reagents, archives biological samples for medical and biotech research, and provides clinical-trial services logistics.

Last May, the company signed an agreement with Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for the long-term storage of cancer patients’ blood stem cells prior to chemotherapy, to be used later to aid their recovery.