Photo: Novartis AG (Flickr)
Cells can often be stored for more than 20 years before they are used in cell therapy.
Cook Group has acquired an Indianapolis-based company that specializes in cell storage. Cook has been investing more heavily in cell therapy, a type of treatment that can range from bone marrow transplants to several new procedures that are still in clinical trials.
Cook Group Vice President Neal Fearnot says the one thing the company was missing was a place to store the cells while they were waiting to be used for treatment. And that is what General BioTechnology was able to do.
“It gives Cook the capability of storing basically any type of living cell for quite a long period of time such that the cell can be thawed back out and function as you would expect a cell to function,” he says.
General BioTechnology has taken on the new name Cook General BioTechnology.
President Erik Woods says his company has always relied heavily on federal grants, so before the acquisition, they had a lot of good ideas, but no way to carry them out. Now, he says, that should change.
“It was a real good fit for us to work with Cook because they are a very high technology company in this kind of industry so they have very nice systems for delivering things to patients and very good access to clinical facilities around the world,” Woods says.
Cook says it does not plan to lay off any workers, and while Fearnot say he cannot give any specifics, Cook officials expect to add jobs to the facility in the near future.
