BioLife Solutions Announces TiGenix’s Completion of Stem Cells and HypoThermosol® Clinical Trial

BOTHELL, Wash., Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --BioLife Solutions, Inc. (BLFS), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media for cells and tissues, and contract media manufacturer, today announced that its customer TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) has completed a phase I clinical safety trial of its expanded adipose-derived stem cell platform incorporating BioLife's cGMP HypoThermosol cell/tissue storage/shipping medium.

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The clinical trial, titled "Phase I Clinical Trial in Healthy Volunteers to Evaluate the Feasibility and Safety of the Intralymphatic Administration Technique of Expanded Allogeneic Adipose-derived Stem Cells (eASCs)," assessed the safety, tolerability and feasibility of a potential cell-based therapy TiGenix is developing for a number of autoimmune disorders including rheumatoid arthritis.

Eduardo Bravo, TiGenix CEO, remarked on the selection of HypoThermosol as a combination shipping medium and vehicle solution for TiGenix's stem cell technology, "HypoThermosol allows us to increase the stability profile of our clinical cell-based products and considerably extends their shelf-life. Increased shelf-life of cell therapy products will be key in future commercial distribution."

Mike Rice, BioLife Solutions Chief Executive Officer, said, "We want to congratulate TiGenix on this important milestone. They join a growing list of regenerative medicine companies that have adopted our best in class biopreservation media products in the development of their clinical cell and tissue based therapies. We're very pleased to support their clinical product development."

About TiGenix

TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) is a leading European cell therapy company with a marketed product for cartilage repair, ChondroCelect, and a strong pipeline with clinical stage allogeneic adult stem cell programs for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. TiGenix is based out of Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain), and Sittard-Geleen (the Netherlands). For more information please visit http://www.tigenix.com.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions develops, manufactures and markets patented hypothermic storage and cryopreservation solutions for cells and tissues. The Company's proprietary HypoThermosol and CryoStor platform of solutions are marketed to academic and commercial organizations involved in cell therapy, tissue engineering, cord blood banking, drug discovery, and toxicology testing. BioLife's products are serum-free and protein-free, fully defined, and are formulated to reduce preservation-induced, delayed-onset cell damage and death. BioLife's enabling technology provides academic and clinical researchers significant improvements in post-thaw cell, tissue, and organ viability and function. For more information please visit http://www.biolifesolutions.com, and follow BioLife on Twitter.

This news release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include any statements that relate to the intent, belief, plans or expectations of the Company or its management, or that are not a statement of historical fact. Any forward-looking statements in this news release are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Some of the specific factors that could cause BioLife Solutions' actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. BioLife Solutions disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

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BioLife Solutions Announces TiGenix's Completion of Stem Cells and HypoThermosol® Clinical Trial