BOTHELL, Wash., Sept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLFS), the leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade cell and tissue hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media and a related cloud hosted biologistics cold chain management app for smart shippers ("BioLife" or the "Company"), today announced Van Nuys, CA-based HemaCare Corporation (OTCPK:HEMA) will validate BioLife's evo Smart Shipper and biologistex cold chain SaaS.  An initial deployment of evo Smart Shippers will be used in transporting Leukopak starting material for CAR-T cellular immunotherapies currently in 3^rd party clinical trials in blood cancers and solid tumors.

BioLife and HemaCare previously announced a supplier relationship wherein BioLife's CryoStor and HypoThermosol clinical grade freeze media and hypothermic storage and shipping media are used by HemaCare to extend stability and improve post preservation yield of blood derived T cells and other cell types used in pre-clinical research and clinical regenerative medicine applications.  BioLife's biologistex cloud based cold chain management service is a new integrated logistics and track and trace web app used by shippers of time and temperature sensitive biologic materials.  The evo Smart Shipper is a state of the art precision thermal shipping container with embedded payload monitoring, GPS location tracking, and cellular communication electronics that transmit critical shipment information to the cloud.  This SaaS app enables users to monitor high value shipments during transit and configure actionable alerts for downstream recipients for location, approaching destination, delivery, package open, and remaining shelf life or stability via the patent pending StableAlert™ countdown timer.

Pete van der Wal, President & CEO of HemaCare, remarked on the decision to validate the evo Smart Shipper and biologistex app for clinical materials management by stating, "We are very pleased to be an early adopter of BioLife's leading edge cold chain management solution.  Our customers count on us to procure and deliver very high quality blood derived and other cell types.  With their clinical grade biopreservation media, and now biologistex cold chain service, BioLife is providing the tools we need to support our clinical customers and their lifesaving cellular immunotherapies.  We're confident our validation process will be successful and look forward to deploying these initial evo smart shippers with our customers."

Mike Rice, BioLife's President & CEO, said, "We are thrilled to expand our partnership with HemaCare.  They have become a critical supplier of blood derived and other cell types to the high growth regenerative medicine industry and their focus on supplying T cells for use in cellular immunotherapy clinical trials perfectly complements our presence in this important segment of the market.  We have many mutual customers and it's very satisfying to see the cumulative impact of both companies' products, services, and commitment to quality be recognized by the leading clinical centers and commercial companies in the space." 

In July 2015, Frost & Sullivan forecasted that the stem cell therapy market is expected to be worth $40 billion by 2020 and $180 billion by 2030. Pharmaceutical Commerce estimates that in 2014, $8.4 billion was spent on cold chain logistics of pharmaceuticals, with $5.6 billion for transportation and $2.8 billion for specialized packaging and instrumentation. BioLife's addressable market is comprised of the demand for small payload shipping containers and related temperature monitoring and location tracking devices.

About HemaCare

Built on a 37-year history of apheresis collection in an FDA registered, cGMP compliant donor collection center, HemaCare Corporation is a leading global provider of human-derived biological products and services, and facilitates the implementation of cellular therapy-based clinical trials.

HemaCare is a leader in Cell and Tissue Collection, Processing, and Cell Therapy, providing high-quality controlled, consistent, customized primary cells and blood components derived from both healthy and disease state peripheral blood, bone marrow, and cord blood to researchers in cellular therapy and other health and biotech related organizations needed to ensure quality research outcomes that meet the unique needs of the scientific community for preclinical and clinical applications in biologics, immunotherapy, cell therapy, assay development, and medical devices. For more information, please visit www.hemacare.com.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions develops, manufactures and markets hypothermic storage and cryopreservation solutions and smart shipping containers connected to a cloud hosted cold chain management app to improve the quality of delivery logistics for cells, tissues, and organs. BioLife also performs contract aseptic media formulation, fill, and finish services. The Company's proprietary HypoThermosol^® and CryoStor^® platform of solutions are highly valued in the biobanking, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine markets. BioLife's biopreservation media 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.  For more information please visit www.biolifesolutions.com, and follow BioLife on Twitter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements concerning new products, the company's anticipated business and operations, the potential utility of and market for its products and services, potential revenue growth and market expansion, and, projected financial results and liquidity. 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 among other things, uncertainty regarding market adoption of products; uncertainty regarding third party market projections; market volatility; competition; litigation; and those other 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

SOURCE BioLife Solutions, Inc.