Celularity, a Warren-based allogenic immuno-oncology and cell therapeutic company, announced it has agreed to acquire CariCord, a family cord blood bank.
CariCord is the first — and only so far — family cord blood bank to operate inside an FDA licensed laboratory, it said.
The acquisition, Celularity said, will advance it as an innovator leader through CariCord’s relationship with ClinImmune Labs, which operates the University of Chicago Cord Blood Bank, an allogenic cord blood bank supporting stem cell transplants worldwide.
“CariCord’s national reputation, coupled with ClinImmune’s world-class translational research and cell manufacturing capabilities, will add important building blocks in our continued growth and expansion,” said Robert J. Hariri, Celularity’s founder and CEO. “Celularity proprietary technology recovers critical cell populations and tissues from post partum placentas, which is fundamental to our transformative immuno-oncology, cell therapeutics, and functional regeneration applications. Now CariCord, in combination with our legacy business, LifebankUSA, will connect families to many of these same platform technologies, to create their own family bank from their newborn’s placenta and cord blood after birth.”
“CariCord and Celularity share a vision of a future in which saving the abundant resources in a newborn’s placenta after birth is the norm, sparking a sea change in the way we think about longevity and health span,” said Calvin Cole, CEO and president of CariCord. “We’re immensely excited to become a part of Celularity’s transformation of immuno-oncology and cell therapeutics.”
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018. Financial terms were not disclosed.
