BioLife Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: BLFS), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical-grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media and precision thermal shipping products for cells and tissues, today announced preliminary revenue of $9.0 million for the full year 2013. This represents 58% growth over 2012, driven by increased shipments to a large contract-manufacturing customer and expanded adoption of CryoStor® freeze media and HypoThermosol® storage/shipping media in clinical trial stage cell-based regenerative medicine products and therapies.
BioLife Solutions Chief Executive Officer, Mike Rice stated, "2013 was another great year for BioLife, made possible by the dedication and commitment of our team, which demonstrated the ability to execute both strategically and operationally. Cell and tissue-based regenerative medicine products and therapies have the potential to transform the way life-threatening and debilitating diseases are treated throughout the world. With our proprietary biopreservation media products now incorporated into over 100 clinical programs, BioLife has the potential to significantly grow revenue and profits as our customers obtain regulatory approval and commence manufacturing and distribution of their commercial products."
The recently published visiongain Translational Regenerative Medicine market research report forecasts that the regenerative medicine market comprised of cell and gene therapies and tissue-engineered products will grow to more than $23 billion by 2024. BioLife's expects to participate in this market growth by providing biopreservation media and precision thermal packaging products used to store, freeze, ship, and administer clinical cells and tissues to patients.
Rice continued, "In 2013, we continued to utilize our manufacturing capacity to serve a select group of contract manufacturing customers. This part of our business grew significantly over last year but contributes lower gross margin than sales of our proprietary products. We will continue to seek additional opportunities to provide aseptic media formulation, fill, and finish services on a contract basis while the regenerative medicine market matures over the next several years."
On December 16, 2013, BioLife announced that it had applied to trade its common shares on the NASDAQ Capital Market®, to be enabled by a reverse stock split and the conversion of all debt into common stock.
BioLife Solutions expects to file its 2013 10-K annual report by February 15, 2014.
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