GE Healthcare has acquired Asymptote Limited, a company specializing in cryochain technology for sensitive cellular therapies. The acquisition fills a critical gap in GE Healthcare’s end-to-end ecosystem of products and services for cell therapy production, according to GE, and will be an important piece of a portfolio enabling the industrialization of these life-saving therapies. Asymptote designed its integrated suite of cryochain hardware, software and consumables to maintain the potency of cellular therapies, enabling ultralow temperature freezing during production.

“Asymptote’s high-quality offering takes us another step forward in our vision to industrialize cell therapy, and in providing reliable and high-quality services for our customers and patients around the world,” says Ger Brophy, general manager of GE Healthcare’s cell therapy business. “We want to improve the access to cellular therapies and tap the great potential that they have in curing some of our most difficult diseases. Finding ambitious technologies and partners like Asymptote, we are one step closer to realizing that goal.”

GE says cellular therapies are rapidly changing the healthcare landscape by providing life-saving and potentially curative treatments for many of the world’s most challenging diseases, especially cancer. And the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine estimates that the cell therapy oncology market is expected to reach $30 billion by 2030, with almost 800 potentially life-changing therapies in clinical trials at the end of 2016.

“Asymptote is delighted to become part of GE Healthcare,” says John Morris, the company’s founder and CEO. “Our vision, current portfolio and exciting pipeline of cryochain technology is a great fit with GE’s Cell Therapy division. Our innovative range of liquid nitrogen-free controlled rate freezers are already widely used in the cryopreservation of cellular-based therapies. The acquisition gives us the opportunity to reach a larger audience through the local specialist GE Cell Therapy team, provides us with a strong platform for our product launches, and allows us to significantly scale up our product development.”