The History of Cryoport

Today, with a qualified Board of Directors and a strong management team, Cryoport continues to refine its strategy, add competencies and intensify its focus on the Biopharma, Animal Health and Reproductive Medicine markets with special attention on the Regenerative Medicine industry. It is advancing its strategy as it builds out its Global Supply Chain Network, which will include BioServices along with its industry leading temperature-controlled logistics solutions and invests in new service offerings at this pivotal time in the evolution of the life sciences industry.

On October 1, 2020 Cryoport completed the acquisitions of both CRYOPDP, a global provider of temperature controlled logistics solutions for clinical research, pharma and cell and gene therapy markets & MVE Biological Solutions, a leader in manufactured vacuum insulated products and cryogenic freezer systems and solutions.

Cryoport is the clear market-leader in temperature-controlled supply chain solutions for the life sciences industry, supporting 652 active clinical trials in the Regenerative Medicine space and the first two CAR T-cell products brought to market, Kymriah® and Yescarta®.  Cryoport has partnerships and collaborations with leading international couriers, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as with industry-giants, Lonza, McKesson Specialty Health and World Courier as it continues to further build out its Compliance Unified Ecosystem^® (CUE) to better serve the life sciences industry, especially regenerative therapy.

In May 2019, Cryoport completed its first acquisition, Cryogene, a biostorage company based in Houston, Texas.

In June 2019, Cryoport completed a common stock offering that raised $68.8 million.  The lead underwriters were Jefferies and SVB Leerink. Other syndicate participants were Needham & Co, Janney, B. Riley, and Roth Capital.

In June 2018, Cryoport was added to the broad-market Russell 3000® Index and the small-cap Russell 2000® Index.

In December 2018, Cryoport announced a $25 million investment from Petrichor Healthcare Capital Management.

Cryoport reported record revenue of over $19 million in 2018.

Also, in 2018, Cryoport introduced Chain of Compliance® a systems that provides traceability of the equipment, processes and logistics handling of a therapeutic, further demonstrating its innovative leadership in serving the life sciences industry.

In March 2017, Cryoport completed a common stock offering that raised $12.7 million. The offering was led by Cowen and Company and Needham & Company and began to attract some institutional interest.

For FY 2012, the company reported revenue of $515,000; for FY2013 it reported revenue of $1.1 million and work was begun to build on the company’s new strategy.

In July 2015 Cryoport up listed to the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Driven by a belief that Cryoport had significant unfulfilled potential, these key shareholders recruited Jerrell Shelton, who was appointed a member of the board of directors in October 2012. In November of 2012, he was appointed President and CEO. Mr. Shelton had led several companies to success, and the board of directors and active shareholders wanted his strategic vision and hands-on management experience to do the same for Cryoport.

Mr. Shelton’s initial strategy was to reposition the company to be a solutions-oriented life sciences company focused on cryogenic logistics company and to develop its infrastructure to be modular and agile to support anticipated growth. With this in mind, Cryoport was able to create a “first-to-market” advantage. Over time, Cryoport was completely repositioned to be a global provider of end-to-end software and logistics solutions for the life sciences industry’s cold chain. Cryoport earned the reputation as the life sciences industry’s most trusted partner when bringing biologics, regenerative medicines, tissues, vaccines and advanced therapies to their respective markets.

Mr. Shelton focused attention on developing a focused strategy on capturing the regenerative medicine market followed by building an exceptional team of dedicated professionals including scientists, technicians and others. With the strategy and the team in place, the company continued to invest in the development of best-in-class cryogenic logistics solutions for the life sciences industry using cutting-edge technologies. With focus, the company was then able to penetrate the emerging regenerate medicine market, where sophisticated logistics, packaging, informatics and transportation were becoming increasingly necessary to meet the complex requirements of high value cell and gene therapies.

In March 2005, the company became a publicly traded entity, Cryoport, Inc., on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) when it entered a share exchange (reverse merger) with G.T.5 -Limited, a Nevada shell corporation that was incorporated in 1990.

Cryoport was originally formed as a manufacturer of dewar vacuum flasks in California in 1999. A group of six doctors established an LLC to bring their initial reusable cryogenic dewar/shipper into the temperature sensitive packaging and transport market with the goal of replacing dry ice, a far inferior method of frozen shipping. The company employed eight people, including the six founders.