Cesca To Launch Immune Cell Banking Service

Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Felicia Alvarez
Photo: A Rancho Cordova-based company says it’s launching a new joint venture to create an immune cell bank (GERMAN101, THINKSTOCK)

Rancho Cordova-based Cesca Therapeutics Inc. says it’s launching a joint venture to create a blood bank-style service for immune cells.

Cesca (NASDAQ: KOOL) announced its joint venture with Irvine-based HealthBanks Biotech USA Inc. on Tuesday. Both companies are affiliated with Boyalife Group Inc., a Chinese group of stem cell companies. Boyalife bought a 70% stake in Cesca in 2016, and HealthBanks is a subsidiary.

The joint venture plans to create a facility that would be “among the first immune cell banks in the U.S.,” that will allow clients to bank healthy immune cells for the future, according to a news release. HealthBanks operates an Irvine-based blood bank, PacifiCord, and is connected to an international network of blood and stem cell banks.

The cell bank would use and commercialize Cesca’s CAR-TXpress platform, which can isolate different components of blood. The device’s efficiency, which the company says is 16 times faster than traditional methods, could offer immune cell storage at a “tangible lower cost,” the company said in a news release.

The companies did not say where the cell bank would be located. Representatives of Cesca could not immediately be reached for comment.

“CAR-T therapeutic research is advancing rapidly,” Cesca CEO Chris Xu said in a written statement. “Partnering with HealthBanks Biotech, one of the foremost stem cell bank networks, with an experienced team and an established global infrastructure, will offer customers the ability to preserve younger, healthier and uncontaminated immune cells for potential future use.”

HealthBanks will own 80% of the joint venture and Cesca will own 20%, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the joint venture launches during the fourth quarter of 2019, Cesca plans to discontinue its clinical assets to focus exclusively on the device business, according to a news release.

Cesca has struggled to make a turnaround since turning back to its research and development activities in 2017, though it appears to be making gains.

Cesca’s revenues were up 88% in the first six months of 2019, due primarily to device sales, according to the company’s most recent filings with the SEC. The company posted a net loss of $3.5 million in the first six months of 2019, compared with a loss of $30.9 million during the same period in 2018.

Cesca shares rose 4.14% on Tuesday, an increase of 22 cents to close at $5.53.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/10/22/cesca-to-launch-immune-cell-banking-service