Sexton Biotechnologies to be Acquired by Biolife Solutions

Innovative tools provider for the cell and gene therapy industry to accelerate their journey creating tools for tomorrow's therapies

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Sexton Biotechnologies

Aug 09, 2021, 08:06 ET

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sexton Biotechnologies, a provider of novel manufacturing solutions for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement whereby BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ: BLFS) will acquire all outstanding shares of the company in a deal worth a total value of $30 million. During the past two years, Sexton has worked to provide end-to-end solutions for emerging cell and gene therapy manufacturers. The merger with BioLife will expand Sexton's ability to meet market demands for their innovative tools such as CellSeal^® cryogenic storage vials, the Signata CT-5™, the industry's first flexible, semi-automated fluid handling system, along with industry leading human platelet lysate growth supplements.

In two years, the Sexton team has launched multiple new products and experienced significant revenue growth. "With the guidance and support of our investors, the Sexton team has executed to reach our development and growth milestones," said Sean Werner, PhD, President of Sexton Biotechnologies who will become BioLife's Chief Technology Officer – Cell Processing Platform. "The team is focused on providing high quality, innovative tools to our customers so that their life saving therapies can be more robust, reliable, and ultimately, cost effective. We're excited about the opportunities to better support our mission by joining the BioLife family and can't imagine a better home for our team members and technologies."

Sexton currently supports CGT manufacturing with two product lines; processing and handling solutions, and cell performance supplements. Initially focused on cryogenic storage, the products have expanded to provide solutions from cell expansion through cryopreservation. The proprietary CellSeal^® storage container is the first final product vial designed specifically for cell therapy to be used as a final container of an FDA approved product. The Signata CT-5 flexible fluid handling system is designed to easily integrate with other leading tools in the industry to improve fill and finish as well as automating the varied manual fluid movement techniques of cell culture. With a range of platelet lysate growth supplements, Stemulate^®, nLiven^®, and T-Liven™, Sexton's cell performance platform allows manufacturers of both MSCs and immune-oncology products to expand cells in a non-xenogenic culture supplement with demonstrated phenotypic improvement.

Mike Rice, BioLife CEO, noted, "As a significant shareholder of Sexton since their spinout from Cook Regentec in 2019, we've been closely following Sean Werner and the Sexton team's great execution and progress. The business is at an inflection point and their products are highly complementary to our portfolio, enabling BioLife to strengthen relationships with our marquee base of cell and gene therapy developers. We welcome the Sexton team to BioLife and look forward to leveraging our respective strengths to accelerate growth across our platforms."

Steven Thompson, PhD, Vice President of Sales and Product Development of Sexton Biotechnologies, remarked, "We are excited for this next chapter as part of BioLife. Our solutions are making a real impact in the industry, and we think this is just the beginning of their potential. Joining with BioLife provides us with a clear path for increasing product adoption while giving us an opportunity to continue innovating to build additional tools that will benefit the industry for years to come."

ABOUT SEXTON BIOTECHNOLOGIES

Sexton Biotechnologies is a revenue stage, biotechnology company focused on the development and sales of bioproduction tools for cell and gene therapy founded in 2019 as a spin out of Cook Regentec, a life science incubator/accelerator located in Indianapolis, IN. Sexton develops purpose-built CGT tools and media to enable flexible automation and scaling of cell manufacturing processes to increase the probability of positive clinical outcomes and reduce time-to-market, failure points, and labor costs. Sexton's portfolio includes the CellSeal platform of cryo-storage tools and fill/finish systems and human platelet lysate growth supplements. More information at www.sextonbiotechnologies.com.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions is a leading supplier of cell and gene therapy bioproduction products and services. Our portfolio includes our proprietary CryoStor^® freeze media and HypoThermosol^®shipping and storage media, ThawSTAR^® family of automated, water-free thawing products, evo^® cold chain management system, Custom Biogenic Systems^® high-capacity cryogenic freezers, Stirling Ultracold ULT freezers, and SciSafe biologic materials storage. For more information, please visit www.biolifesolutions.com, www.savsu.com, www.custombiogenics.com, www.scisafe.com, www.stirlingultracold.com, www.sextonbio.com and follow BioLife on Twitter.