Cesca Therapeutics subsidiary acquires assets of Sacramento’s SynGen Inc.

Rancho Cordova’s Cesca Therapeutics Inc., a stem cell medicine and medical technology company, announced Monday that its subsidiary has acquired the assets of SynGen Inc., the privately held Sacramento medical device company specializing in cell separation and cord-blood-processing products.

The deal essentially joins two of the most prominent local companies involved in stem cell medicine.

Cesca said that its wholly-owned subsidiary, ThermoGenesis Corp., has acquired “substantially all of SynGen’s operating assets, including its proprietary cell processing platform technology.”

As part of the deal, ThermoGenesis granted SynGen 20 percent of its common stock and paid a one-time cash payment of $1 million. Officials said the acquisition closed Friday.

Cesca said that Philip Coelho, co-founder and chief technology officer of SynGen, has joined ThermoGenesis in the same chief technology officer role.

Coelho is the founder and former CEO of ThermoGenesis Corp. He co-founded SynGen in 2007 and left the ThermoGenesis board of directors the following year. At SynGen, Coelho said prospective customers for its products included stem cell research centers, hospitals and stem cell clinical trials.

Just prior to last Friday’s acquisition of SynGen, Cesca said it contributed the assets of its blood and bone-marrow processing device business to ThermoGenesis. Cesca said it will operate its device business and manage the newly acquired SynGen operations through its ThermoGenesis subsidiary.

“The acquisition of SynGen’s portfolio of commercial products and intellectual property solidifies ThermoGenesis’ position as a leading developer of automated cellular processing systems,” Chris Xuchairman and interim CEO of Cesca Therapeutics, said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Coelho said: “I am very pleased to join the ThermoGenesis team to further advance our combined portfolio of automated cell processing solutions that we believe will underpin many of medicine’s most significant future advancements.”

Cesca is majority owned by an affiliate of the Boyalife Group, a China-based industry research alliance that includes research institutions for stem cell and regenerative medicine.

This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Cesca Therapeutics subsidiary acquires assets of Sacramento’s SynGen Inc.."