Discovery Life Sciences (Discovery), the biospecimen and biomarker specialists, announced its acquisition of AllCells, a leading provider of clinical-grade (GMP-compliant) and Research Use Only (RUO) primary cell products. With more than 30 years of collective cell and gene therapy (CGT) experience, AllCells and Discovery will focus on providing revolutionary products and services with greater speed and reliability to satisfy the entire CGT continuum ─ from basic discovery through commercialization.
Founded in 1998 by Jay Tong, M.D., AllCells is a leading global provider in procuring and customizing primary cell products to support a diversity of CGT applications. Combining AllCells’ proven industry expertise with Discovery’s biospecimen and biomarker specialization establishes the premier provider for critical starting materials and analytic services to accelerate CGT applications.
“We are very excited to welcome the AllCells team to the Discovery family,” said Discovery CEO Glenn Bilawsky. “Bringing these two great companies together creates a scalable, end-to-end solution that gives our clients unprecedented access to reliable human cellular starting materials with integrated multi-omic analytic services to support cell and gene therapies.”
Discovery will combine its existing CGT products and services with AllCells to create a new business unit called AllCells, a Discovery Life Sciences Company. Effective immediately, AllCells CEO and President Danny Zheng will lead the combined entity.
The combination of Discovery’s growing CGT business with AllCells also creates one of the industry’s largest dedicated client donor pools. The FDA-registered donor collection facilities and GMP-compliant cleanrooms are located adjacent to characterization labs. This proximity strategically enables immediate processing and cryopreservation for unparalleled quality ― providing customers faster and more cost-effective access to a larger, engaged donor pool with characterization for client-specific programs.
Zheng said, “We have built our organization to be an extension of our client’s supply chain. By offering donor program consulting, high-quality apheresis collections, customization services, and GMP-compliant starting materials, our dedicated team will continue to provide a high-touch, client-focused approach to ensure our clients’ needs are met with superior products and services to fit any timeline and on any scale. Our strategy parallels and reinforces Discovery’s ‘Science at your Service’ approach, and our unified offerings will further accelerate our clients’ strategic and vital cell and gene therapy programs.”
“The promise of CGT to impact patient health is unquestionable, but improvements in manufacturing and reproducibility are needed to expand addressable patient populations and enhance treatment paradigms,” said Discovery’s Chief Technical Officer, CGT Dominic Clarke. “Our solution delivers access to the entire continuum from RUO to GMP starting materials, informed by integrated, comprehensive characterization at scale, to support these rapidly expanding needs of the industry.”