BOTHELL, Wash., April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLFS), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media and precision thermal shipping products for cells and tissues, today announced that it will launch biologistex service, a new integrated platform of a cloud-based information service and precision thermal shipping products for cells and tissues at the 20^th ISCT Annual Meeting, April 23-26, 2014 in Paris, France.

The biologistex family of products includes next generation controlled temperature transport containers from SAVSU Technologies, Inc., branded as EVO™. The reusable, highly durable EVO shippers require little to no maintenance and are available in two configurations, designed to maintain cell and tissue payloads for multiple days at 2-8°C or near -80°C. BioLife will market biologistex products to its strategic markets including regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical, and biobanking, as complementary technologies to BioLife's best in class, clinical grade biopreservation media products. 

biologistex EVO products incorporate embedded payload environmental monitoring sensors for temperature, tilt, pressure, and exposure to light, providing continuous assurance of payload temperature, security and chain of custody.    An embedded cellular radio transmits GPS location and payload environmental data to a cloud-based web portal www.mybiologistex.net, enabling customers to take an active role in self-managing the logistics of their thermally sensitive biologic payloads.

Offering a simple pack-out process, biologistex EVO products will be rented to customers for a monthly use fee that also includes semi-annual return to BioLife's Bothell, Washington-based service depot for battery replacement, calibration, and performance inspection.

Mike Rice, BioLife's Chief Executive Officer, commented on the introduction of the biologistex product line by stating, "We are extremely pleased to launch biologistex in partnership with SAVSU Technologies.  The very high degree of interest in SAVSU precision thermal shippers from current and prospective customers in our strategic markets illustrates the opportunity we have to fulfill the need for intelligent, informed, precise clinical materials management solutions.  Just as we effected a paradigm shift away from using home-brew and non-optimized preservation cocktails to using our engineered, clinical grade biopreservation media products for cells and tissues, we are committed to moving the regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical, and biobanking markets away from using beer coolers and gel packs or dry ice shippers to using precision engineered thermal packaging products for their temperature sensitive, expensive, and life-improving and lifesaving biologic payloads.

Rice continued, "For the first time, using biologistex EVO shippers and the mybiologistex.net web portal, our customers, including commercial regenerative medicine companies and contract cell manufacturing organizations, can proactively take control of monitoring and managing biologic shipment logistics.  With continuous temperature monitoring, quality assurance for every shipment is vastly improved, reducing the occurrence of administering a clinical dose that has been exposed to temperature excursions outside a validated profile.  Ambient and infrared light sensors can detect if the payload was opened during transit, improving security and chain of custody. GPS tracking enables our customers to receive alerts about the shipment location and notify other stakeholders including clinicians about the estimated arrival time.  All of these benefits eliminate the need for our customers to rely on very expensive white glove couriers and logistics management service providers."

In December 2013, the IMARC Group published its Global Healthcare Cold Chain Logistics Market Report & Forecast.  This includes a forecast that the demand for cold chain packaging and instrumentation services will grow from $3.2 billion in 2013 to $5.1 billion in 2018.

The recently published visiongain Translational Regenerative Medicine market research report forecasts that the regenerative medicine market comprised of cell and gene therapies and tissue-engineered products will grow to more than $23 billion by 2024. BioLife expects to participate in this market growth by providing biopreservation media and precision thermal packaging products used to store, freeze, ship, and administer clinical cells and tissues to patients.  To date, BioLife's proprietary biopreservation media products have been incorporated into over 100 hospital-approved and clinical trial stage regenerative medicine products and therapies. 

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions develops, manufactures and markets hypothermic storage and cryopreservation solutions for cells, tissues, and organs. The Company's proprietary HypoThermosol^® and CryoStor^® clinical grade biopreservation media products are highly valued in the biobanking, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine markets, where the products are currently utilized in more than 100 clinical trials and hospital-approved procedures. BioLife's products are serum-free and protein-free, fully defined, and are formulated to reduce preservation-induced cell damage and death.  BioLife's enabling technology provides commercial companies and clinical researchers significant improvement in shelf life and post-preservation viability and function of cells, tissues, and organs. 

BioLife's biologistex hardware and software solution enables intelligent, informed, precise clinical materials management.  EVO precision thermal packaging products are designed to maintain uniform biologic payload temperature over several days. Embedded payload temperature and environmental monitoring and GPS location electronics tracking offers customers real-time ability to self-manage the biologistics of transporting precious cells, tissues, vaccines, and other temperature sensitive biologic materials. For more information please visit www.biolifesolutions.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements concerning our products' performance and market adoption, market forecasts, and other anticipated developments related to us, our business or customers. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including the factors described in our risk factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained herein or to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof, other than as may be required by applicable law.

Media & Investor Relations
Daphne Taylor
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
(425) 402-1400 
dtaylor@biolifesolutions.com 

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SOURCE BioLife Solutions, Inc.