Cellipont Receives Strategic Debt Investment from OrbiMed to Complete State-of-the-Art Commercial Manufacturing Facility

New facility in The Woodlands, TX accelerates Cellipont’s cell therapy innovation

POWAY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cellipont Bioservices (Cellipont), a cell therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced a strategic debt facility investment from OrbiMed, a healthcare investment firm. The investment will be used by Cellipont to fully finance the previously announced state-of-the-art commercial facility for cell therapies and gene-modified cell therapies in The Woodlands, Texas.

"We are energized by this partnership with OrbiMed, which helps us to bring this world-class facility to completion in 2023," said Deborah Wild, President and CEO of Cellipont. “Once completed, Cellipont will be uniquely positioned to offer technically-superior, highly-responsive outsourced contract development and GMP manufacturing services to innovative cell therapy companies. OrbiMed understands our vision, has a unique portfolio of life science companies, and was the ideal partner for Cellipont in this journey.”

The 76,000-square-foot facility will feature significant capabilities including process and analytical development (PD/AD) and manufacturing services for CAR-T, IPSC, MSC and other types of cell therapies. OrbiMed’s support will enable clients to take advantage of cutting-edge cleanrooms, promising technological innovations, and a team with deep scientific expertise in a best-in-class facility.

Matthew Rizzo, General Partner of OrbiMed, commented “OrbiMed is excited to partner with Cellipont for their continued growth. Cellipont’s scientific expertise, state-of-the-art facilities, and unique capabilities were apparent to us throughout our debt process and we believe the Company is well prepared to capitalize on future demand as the cell and gene therapy CDMO market continues to grow and evolve.”

The new complex, which broke ground in November 2022, is specially designed to meet Cellipont’s agile manufacturing style that marries technical excellence and personal service to help clients get to target endpoints faster.

"This expansion underscores our unwavering commitment to going above and beyond for our clients and patients,” said Darren Head, Chairman of Cellipont. “We look forward to accelerating cell therapy innovation by offering our partners state-of-the-art facilities with the power to unlock life-changing medicines.”

Cellipont first announced plans to develop the new facility in August 2022, with construction set to be completed in several phases. The firm recently added two experienced executives to its commercial leadership team, hiring Brian Walsh as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Aaron Solis as Senior Director of Business Development. Cellipont also recently hired Tim Heher as CFO, who possesses extensive experience operating private equity backed CDMO investments. OrbiMed now teams up with existing financial sponsor, Great Point Partners, who first partnered with Cellipont in 2021.

William Blair acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Cellipont for this financing.

About Cellipont Bioservices

Cellipont Bioservices is a privately-held cell therapy CDMO operating in San Diego, CA and The Woodlands, TX with more than 15 years of experience in the development and manufacturing of cell therapies, ranging from small to large-scale batches. Cellipont has deep technical expertise and has been recognized by customers and partners for its ability to productively grow challenging cell types. Cellipont’s culture is customer-centric with a focus on partnering, flexibility and responsiveness. For more information, please visit www.cellipont.com.

About OrbiMed

OrbiMed is a healthcare investment firm, with approximately $18 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry through a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed provides commercial-stage healthcare companies with non-dilutive structured debt capital. Additionally, OrbiMed can monetize royalty streams, providing valuable financing solutions to owners of intellectual property. OrbiMed’s team of over 100 professionals is based in New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Herzliya and other key global markets.

About Great Point Partners

Great Point Partners, founded in 2003 and based in Greenwich, CT, is a leading health care investment firm with 30 professionals, investing in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. GPP is currently making new minority and majority private equity investments from GPP IV. Great Point manages over $1.5B of capital in its private funds and public life sciences equity strategy (BioMedical Value Fund). Great Point Partners has provided growth equity, growth recapitalization, and management buyout financing to more than 200 growing health care companies. The private equity funds invest across all sectors of the health care industry with a particular emphasis on biopharmaceutical services and supplies, alternate site care, medical device and information technology enabled businesses. The firm pursues a proactive and proprietary approach to sourcing investments and tuck-in acquisitions for its portfolio companies.