Business Insight Journal Interview with Jerry Shelton, Chief Executive Officer, Cryoport Inc

Shaping global access to advanced therapies through innovation, compliance, and intelligent supply chain platforms.

Jerrell, you’ve been leading Cryoport through a period of transformative growth. How has your vision for the company evolved as it became a critical player in supporting advanced therapies worldwide?
In 2013, my vision for Cryoport was rooted in enabling the future of medicine through reliable, scalable and compliant logistics solutions. Over the years, as we have grown into a global leader in the life sciences supporting cell and gene therapies, that vision has evolved into something far more expansive.

Today, we are a provider of temperature-controlled supply chain solutions for the life sciences industry, with a focus on cell and gene therapy. We provide “must-have” temperature-controlled supply chain solutions. In addition, we have shifted our role from being a service provider to a strategic partner—one that helps life science companies navigate regulatory landscapes, scale operations and, in the case of cell and gene therapy, reach patients securely and quickly, delivering lifesaving regenerative medicines with the appropriate documented information.

Today, my vision centers on Cryoport being the essential supply chain company—the “connective tissue” of the life sciences ecosystem. We’re not just moving commodities; we are safeguarding hope, ensuring that every shipment carries the potential to support and transform lives.

The launch of the Cryoport Express® Cryogenic HV3 Shipping System is a major milestone. What specific challenges in transporting biologics and advanced therapies does this system aim to solve?
Our innovations across the company are a result of answering client needs. The HV3 Cryoport Express Shipper is a system that ensures unmatched protection and accessibility for biologics and other temperature-sensitive materials. Its unique design eliminates the need for palletization (securing shippers on a pallet for transportation) and enables critical life science materials to be transported on narrow-bodied aircraft (more on that below), thereby, in the case of regenerative medicines, improving patient accessibility.

The HV3 Cryoport Express Shipper is specifically engineered to meet the needs of advanced therapies, as the system ensures superior temperature control, maintaining payload integrity and extended temperature stability at -150°C or lower. It offers enhanced payload protection and resilience during transport. With additional space for non-temperature-sensitive accessories and documentation, it improves storage efficiency with the ability to stack and nest the shippers, making it more cost-effective and user-friendly. Full compliance with airline requirements, plus an integrated condition and location monitoring system, provides a full chain of compliance.

Finally, the HV3’s structure provides enhanced handling and mobility with its robust wheels and integrated front-facing handle, improving accessibility at point-of-care sites. Its design provides for scalability or higher density storage capabilities at manufacturing and clinical sites. While improving overall safety for clinicians and operators, these features enable more efficient handling and storage at point-of-care sites, contract development and manufacturing organizations and other storage locations, reducing the need for additional site-based resources.

HV3’s ability to function on narrow-bodied aircraft opens new possibilities. How does this advancement expand global access to therapies, especially in underserved or remote regions?
The HV3 Cryoport Express Shipper’s ability to function on narrow-bodied aircraft ensures compliance with regional carriers’ requirements and reduces flight rejections and delays. As a result, the HV3 increases the number of available shipping lanes, which improves patient access and enables lifesaving therapies to reach patients in underserved areas.

From shock-absorbing materials to longer temperature hold times, your MVE SC 4/2V and MVE SC 4/3V vapor shippers introduce several technical enhancements. How do these upgrades translate into real-world reliability for labs and clinics?
The next-generation MVE SC 4/2V and MVE 4/3V models were redesigned utilizing innovative technologies to offer customers added protection during extended or challenging shipments. These four-liter vapor shippers are engineered to safely transport critical biological materials, such as cells and tissues materials for cell therapies, biopharma, reproductive health materials and animal health materials, including vaccines, while maintaining the materials’ integrity throughout the journey.

The MVE SC 4/2V and MVE SC 4/3V vapor shipper models include several key advancements designed to enhance performance and reliability. Hold times for both next-generation models have been significantly extended to up to 19 days for the SC 4/2V (previously 13 days) and 26 days for the SC 4/3V (up from 21 days), which provides greater flexibility and security during transit delays. MVE’s patented technology also features a specially designed top that flexes under stress, absorbing impact to reduce the risk of damage during rough handling that sometimes happens during shipping.

Cryoport’s partnership with DHL and the acquisition of CRYOPDP mark a significant shift in global life sciences logistics. What does this expanded collaboration mean for Cryoport’s strategy in EMEA and APAC markets?
Cryoport’s partnership with the DHL Group enables Cryoport to enhance its core service capabilities and continue to develop a strong global partner network, specifically in the APAC and EMEA regions. It provides greater opportunities to offer highly targeted, top-tier services in these regions in response to growing market demand. Most importantly, it allows Cryoport to intensify its focus on advancing the company’s temperature-controlled life science supply chain platform globally, especially in the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy market.

With regulatory requirements tightening and therapies becoming more fragile and complex, how is Cryoport ensuring scalability while maintaining compliance and precision?
With advanced technology, unlike conventional logistics solutions, Cryoport’s biologistics services provide a Chain of Compliance® that offers unparalleled traceability, ensuring the integrity and custody of critical commodities throughout their journey. The Chain of Compliance® also integrates validated requalification procedures, as well as maintains a complete history of equipment performance and its locations. By using our proprietary packaging and leveraging extensive data collection and management capabilities, we mitigate risks and implement preventative measures to ensure the safe delivery of invaluable materials, whether upstream or downstream.

This includes:

● End-to-end traceability: monitoring every step of the temperature-controlled supply chain to ensure compliance and product integrity
● Chain of condition: tracking and maintaining environmental controls to preserve the condition of sensitive commodities
● Chain of identity: safeguarding the identity of each product, ensuring it reaches the right destination without compromise
● Validated requalification procedures: ensuring equipment meets rigorous standards before each and every use
● Data-driven risk mitigation: utilizing robust data management, including artificial intelligence, to anticipate and prevent potential issues

All of these factors enable Cryoport to continue to scale and protect the lifesaving materials it transports and/or stores.

The integration of Cryoport’s Safepak® System with HV3 shows a focus on both safety and usability. How important is clinician and operator feedback in shaping your product development roadmap?
We are a market-driven company; as such, in this case, clinician and operator feedback was solicited, and additional feedback was sought throughout development. We are committed to listening and anticipating industry challenges and continuously evolving our solutions to meet the critical needs of our clients and the patients they serve.

As life sciences companies seek more than logistics — demanding data, traceability, and condition monitoring — how is Cryoport’s technology infrastructure rising to meet those expectations?
The expectations of our life sciences customers have evolved dramatically. Today, it is not just about moving materials—it’s about delivering data-rich, risk-mitigated and fully traceable supply chain solutions. At Cryoport, we have built a technology infrastructure that rises to meet this challenge head-on.

For example, our SmartPak II® Condition Monitoring System, integrated with our Cryoportal® Logistics Management Platform and Live View® Display, provides real-time visibility into every shipment. We track temperature, pressure, humidity, orientation and shock events—ensuring that any deviation triggers an automated alert, whereby immediate corrective measures are undertaken by our client care team.

This is not just monitoring—it’s predictive biologistics. By correlating transit events with sample integrity, we’re helping clients proactively manage risk and optimize their supply chains.

Our platform doesn’t just support compliance; it empowers decision-making with actionable insights.

Ultimately, our infrastructure is designed to be more than a safeguard. It’s a strategic asset for companies navigating the complexities of advanced therapies.

With DHL aiming to become a leader in pharma logistics and Cryoport expanding its platform, how do you see this partnership redefining end-to-end supply chain solutions for the life sciences?
The DHL Group’s acquisition of CRYOPDP reflects the DHL’s commitment to enhancing its capabilities in specialized pharma logistics and expanding the breadth of its offering in the rapidly growing life science and healthcare sector. CRYOPDP specializes in providing white-glove courier services essential to the sectors it serves. With operations in 15 countries, CRYOPDP handles over 600,000 shipments per year, servicing customers and patients in over 135 countries worldwide. The strategic partnership with Cryoport will bring together DHL’s global health logistics capabilities with Cryoport’s industry-leading expertise in providing specialized solutions in a fast-growing global life science and healthcare market segment. We anticipate our partnership will provide synergistic growth in biopharma for both companies.

Looking ahead, what innovations or shifts do you anticipate will define the next chapter of temperature-controlled logistics in support of cell, gene, and regenerative medicine?
We think the next chapter of supporting the life sciences will be defined by convergence, where data integration, artificial intelligence and global infrastructure come together to support all facets of the continued ramp up of commercialized cell and gene therapies globally.

We are entering an era where these fragile, complex, lifesaving therapies will treat a far greater number of patients on an outpatient basis at smaller regional points of care globally. This means demand data integration, a global temperature-controlled supply chain network and predictive intelligence (AI). At Cryoport, we have invested/are investing in analytic systems to anticipate risk before it happens, as well as smart packaging systems that communicate their environmental conditions in near-real time. We also see a shift toward an integrated ecosystem where we anticipate playing a larger role. Our recent partnership with the DHL Group is a prime example—combining the global logistics reach of DHL’s vast network with Cryoport’s temperature-controlled supply chain solutions.

The future portends a smarter, faster and more connected world. Cryoport is connecting its global supply chain solutions with global partners to make that future possible.

A quote or advice from the author

One of my favorite quotes is from William E. Simon, who said, “Believe in the magic of the marketplace but know that, like a mighty ocean, it is relentless in changing course and ruthless toward those who cannot adapt.”