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“ One of the key bottlenecks the industry is facing today is the ability to address patient accessibility ,” Mark continues . “ Patients are competing for the same bed space in all the large hospitals throughout the US and Europe , meaning that only approximately 20 percent of those patients can access the therapies . As such , most of these companies have significant initiatives underway to expand their reach beyond the large hospitals and into the community settings .
“ One of the key elements here is a lack of infrastructure to support the collection and preservation of the starting material . As such , we have strategic partnerships with the National Marrow Donor Program for the Gulf Coast and Houston area where donor and collection activity are based . We carry out cryopreservation , which is a process that cools biological material to very low temperatures to ensure it doesn ’ t degrade during transit , which provides greater flexibility from a manufacturing schedule standpoint . We can provide a fully standardized cryopreservation process throughout the US and Europe via our two facilities in Houston , Texas and in Liege , Belgium , and we will continue to expand into other facilities as demand dictates it ,” he shares .
“ Alongside these initiatives , we have also expanded operations into the Stevenage area of the UK with a logistics facility , enabling us to directly support transportation-related considerations for the UK market . Likewise , we have recently completed significant expansion of our Pont-du-Château facility in France . This development increases the facility ’ s size from 445 square meters to 1040 square meters , enhancing our bio-storage capabilities and supporting the distribution of commercial drug products manufactured in the United States that need to be delivered within Europe .
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