NEW YORK – Orgenesis said on Monday that the private equity firm Metalmark Capital Partners will invest up to $50 million in Orgenesis' new US-based subsidiary, Morgenesis, to grow its point-of-care cell therapy platform in the US.
The investment will be made at a pre-money valuation of $125 million, and will include a $30 million upfront investment followed by two additional $10 million investments contingent on milestones.
Following the deal's closing, Germantown, Maryland-based Orgenesis will own the majority of Morgenesis, which the company has created to streamline its point-of-care cell therapy business units and provide services for point-of-care cell and gene therapy drug development. Under the umbrella of the new service offering, Morgenesis will provide process development, regulatory strategy and implementation, and therapy automation for point-of-care delivery — a process it has dubbed "OMPULization."
Together, Orgenesis hopes these offerings, which it refers to collectively as its POCare Services, can help biotech companies and hospital systems scale their cell therapy delivery platforms to reach the growing population of patients who could benefit.
While the initial focus will be on expanding POCare's reach in the US, the company has ambitions to grow the business in other countries as well. "These funds will be instrumental to the further growth and rollout of the POCare platform," Orgenesis CEO Vered Caplan said in a statement. "The platform is critical to deliver cell and gene therapies globally in a cost-effective format."