Cryoport Inc.’s chilly business is fueling red-hot sales growth.
The Lake Forest-based company, which uses cryogenic technology to ship life sciences products cold, topped the Business Journal’s annual list of fastest-growing small public companies that are based here.
It posted 398.8% sales growth to $3.1 million for the two years ended June 30.
Cryoport ships products that need to be kept cold or frozen. It has a variety of life sciences clients, including biopharmaceutical companies, medical laboratories, research facilities, and a variety of clinics, including orthopedic and in-vitro fertilization clinics.
The company uses a combination of proprietary packaging, software, and “skilled and total management of the entire logistics process” for its clients.
Container
That includes a container to ship and store products in a cryogenic environment that can be used in a clinic, hospital, or point-of-care site for up to six days at a time. Using the storage container enables the distribution of cell-based products “without the expense, inconvenience, and potential costly failure of an on-site, cryopreservation device,” Cryoport said.
The company uses two large shipping companies: Memphis, Tenn.-based Federal Express Corp. and the DHL unit of Germany-based Deutsche Post AG.
Partnerships have been fueling its growth.
“This includes closing a number of strategic customer deals and partnership agreements that will contribute significantly to future revenue growth,” Chief Executive Jerrell Shelton said in a news release announcing Cryoport’s financial results for the three months ended June 30.
The company said last month that it started to deliver AmnioClear, a cryogenically preserved knee treatment, to orthopedists. AmnioClear is a product of West Conshohocken, Pa.-based Liventa Bioscience Inc.
Robin Young, Liventa’s chief executive, said his company put in “careful research” before deciding to team up with Cryoport.
“Cryoport’s [service offering] opens up every corner of the orthopedic industry to advanced biologic tissue and cell forms,” Young said.
Clinics
He also noted that orthopedic clinics are spared from buying dry ice and bulky, costly liquid nitrogen containers or expensive cryogenic freezers.
“There is also no unnecessary capital investment for the clinics,” Young said.
Cryoport announced an expansion of its marketing, business development and sales teams shortly before the Liventa deal announcement but didn’t give specific numbers. At the time, it said it would develop “parallel expansion programs” to grow its presence in market sectors such as in-vitro fertilization and animal husbandry.
“Also, as a global company, Cryoport will be expanding in markets such as Europe, Latin America and Asia,” said Shelton, who has served as Cryoport’s chief executive since November 2012.
The company was established in 1990 as G.T.5-Ltd. and became public in 2005 through a reverse merger with a shell company.
It has “transitioned from being a development company to a fully operational public company, providing cold chain logistics solutions to the biotechnology and life sciences industries globally,” it said in its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June.
Cryoport is, like many other startup companies related to the life sciences industry, unprofitable due to the research and regulatory costs of building up the business. It posted a loss of $21.3 million in the 12 months through last June. Shelton said the company aims to change that.
“Our team is working hard to continue our drive to profitability. We are encouraged by the life science market’s growing acceptance of our [service offerings]. As mentioned in our last earnings release, our selling, general and administrative and research and development costs will increase as we continue to scale the business.”
Cryoport’s shares trade on the low-profile over-the-counter bulletin board and had a recent market value of $27 million.
