GE Healthcare Focuses on Cell Therapies with BioSafe Acquisition

GE Healthcare announced on July 13, 2016 that it is acquiring Biosafe SA, a Swiss company focused on stem cell processing. Biosafe makes instruments that recover stem cells and aid in various other cell processing procedures related to personalized medicine.

After stem cells have been separated from blood and modified with the help of Biosafe’s instruments, GE’s Xuri cell expansion system can grow the cells in the sample for an acceptable dose size. After being harvested, tested, and packaged, the therapies can be administered to the patient. Biosafe’s processing tools utilize disposable connections and closed-fluid pathways.

The addition of Biosafe is just one of GE’s many initiatives to expand in the regenerative therapy and immunotherapy spaces. In January 2016, GE teamed up with the Canadian government for a $31.5-million investment into the production of cellular therapies, and in April 2016, GE launched a cloud-based software network in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic to accelerate the development of gene and cell therapies. Called Vitruvian Networks, GE’s partnership with Mayo will focus on the manufacture of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of blood cancers. The hope is that armed with Mayo’s data, GE can automate much of the cell therapy treatment process in a timely, cost-effective manner, even though the starting materials are tailored to each patient. That venture aims to bring the “internet of things” to cell and gene therapies and provide a structure of standardization to autologous products being manufactured at small scale.

Source: GE Healthcare