Brooklyn-Based Biotech Firm Sets Out To Save Lives, Expand Presence In The Big Apple

The U.S. life sciences market continues to boom, with the sector’s real estate footprint growing by almost 50% since 2017. But while markets like Boston and San Francisco remain some of the largest in the nation, New York City’s life sciences market is drawing more attention from investors globally. 

The city's life sciences market is home to more than 2.9M SF of R&D and laboratory space, with this number expected to rise to about 4.6M SF by 2025. The city government is investing $1B into the life sciences industry, further solidifying New York’s commitment to the growing sector.

But while R&D continues to dominate New York’s life sciences market, sterile manufacturing for medical devices is uncommon. The exception is Cresilon, a Brooklyn-based biotech startup with more than 60 employees, operating out of a 25K SF biomanufacturing facility in Industry City.

“When we talk about biomanufacturing throughout the city, it's all R&D-level manufacturing,” said Joe Landolina, co-founder and CEO at Cresilon. “There isn't another manufacturer that is fully CGMP or that is producing at scale in a verticalized way. We're effectively the only ones doing the type of manufacturing that you would find in Big Pharma.”

Bisnow spoke with Landolina to find out more about how Cresilon is leading the charge in biomanufacturing in the Big Apple, why the firm decided to set up shop in New York and what the market will look like in the near future.

Bisnow: Tell us about Cresilon and the services/products the firm offers.

Landolina: Cresilon is a Brooklyn-based biotech company that makes products that stop bleeding instantly. We have three major business units that have products with varying levels of commercial access. 

The first is veterinary care, or animal health. We have a product by the name of Vetigel, which can be used anywhere that an animal is bleeding, from trauma to brain surgery and everything in between. 

We then have a trauma care business, which is in the human space, including everything from EMS to military use. Finally, we have a surgical business, which is essentially Vetigel but for humans.

Cresilon is the only aseptic fill-finish facility in the five boroughs of New York, which is something that we're very proud of. We're the only ones doing sterile manufacturing for medical devices here in New York City. It's allowed us to build a really nice verticalized business.

Isaac Miller and I co-founded Cresilon 13 years ago. I'm a chemical engineer by trade, and I invented the technology that eventually became our platform. Together we’ve raised just shy of $100M in venture funding to build out our vision for Cresilon.

Bisnow: What is the mission of Cresilon? 

Landolina: We have a very simple mission: to save lives. I'm very lucky to say that our technology and products are doing that every single day.

Our main differentiator from other biomanufacturing companies is that we're the only ones doing this type of sterile manufacturing in New York City. R&D-level manufacturing is happening throughout the city, but to my knowledge there isn't another manufacturer that is fully CGMP. We're the only ones doing this type of biomanufacturing.

Bisnow: What steps is the firm taking to grow and scale the company in a location where biomanufacturing facilities are uncommon? 

Landolina: As a native New Yorker, the decision to grow Cresilon in New York was not purely an economic one. In fact, it’s oftentimes more economical to build outside of New York. 

The reason why we stay here is because the majority of our team are also New Yorkers. We want to be here and build jobs that make an impact in the neighborhoods that we grew up in. 

Beyond that, there's an untapped talent pool from the city’s top universities. New engineers, if they want to work in a life sciences manufacturing facility, have exactly one option: Cresilon. Otherwise, they're either making the commute out to New Jersey or further. We’re also very lucky that we were able to leverage both city incentives as well as partner with our landlord, developer Industry City, to turn our vision into reality.

Bisnow: Where do you see the life sciences/biomanufacturing industry headed in New York City? 

Landolina: I think New York City has a long way to go. New York is not Cambridge, it's not San Diego, the Bay Area or the Research Triangle. One of the big issues is that we're landlocked. In New York, we don't have a lot of green fields that you can pick and build new buildings on. We have to retrofit our buildings, which poses its own set of complexities. 

However, I think that the city has been doing a very good job of trying to incentivize biomanufacturing. Many of the life sciences firms here are more R&D-related than they are production. While this is great, we need to build out the manufacturing ecosystem. 

A true biomanufacturing ecosystem is not just scientists, engineers and executives, but rather it's the entire community. To build this ecosystem, it’s going to take some more time, but that’s what we’re most excited about. 

Bisnow: What’s next for Cresilon? What role will the firm play in the sector’s expansion as NYC grows into a more popular life sciences market?

Landolina: A few weeks ago, we received our first FDA clearance in human use, which is super-exciting. We've been saving lives and animal health for years, and now we get to expand that mission into the human space. This is a very drastic expansion, though. We’re still far from the scale that we'll need for human use, which means we're going to be growing pretty significantly. I'm excited to be the leader in this type of manufacturing as we start to build our ecosystem. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Cresilon and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to [email protected].