The Acquisition
OrganaBio acquired Excellos Labs in May 2026, adding a San Diego-based cGMP cell therapy manufacturing facility to its CTDMO infrastructure. The acquisition marks a significant expansion of OrganaBio’s geographic footprint and manufacturing capabilities, extending the company’s integrated apheresis-to-manufacturing model into Southern California — one of the highest-density cell therapy research and development ecosystems in the world.
What Excellos Labs Brings
Excellos Labs operated as a specialized cell therapy contract development and manufacturing organization in San Diego with cGMP manufacturing infrastructure, process development expertise, and an established relationship with the San Diego cell therapy research community.
The acquisition adds:
- cGMP manufacturing capacity in Southern California
- Process development capabilities for cell therapy manufacturing optimization
- San Diego facility infrastructure and regulatory documentation history
- Established relationships with the San Diego biotech and pharma cell therapy community
Why San Diego Matters for Cell Therapy
San Diego is one of a small number of geographic clusters where cell therapy R&D concentration justifies dedicated infrastructure. The San Diego biotech corridor houses dozens of active cell therapy programs across autologous and allogeneic CAR-T, NK cell therapy, TCR-T, and gene-modified cell approaches. Clinical research organizations, academic medical centers, and contract manufacturing organizations operating in San Diego serve programs that need apheresis collection, cell processing, and manufacturing capabilities in the same metropolitan area.
OrganaBio’s Cell Processing Center model — which co-locates apheresis and cell processing infrastructure to enable 30-minute receipt-to-first-spin processing — requires facility presence in the markets where cell therapy programs are running. San Diego is one of those markets.
What It Means for Programs Working With OrganaBio
For cell therapy programs in Southern California, the acquisition creates a local option for the full OrganaBio service stack: characterized leukopak starting material, cGMP cell processing, and manufacturing development support without requiring cross-country shipping on fresh product.
For programs already working with OrganaBio from other locations, the San Diego facility expands the geographic options for multi-site apheresis collection — relevant for clinical trials that enroll at Southern California treatment centers.
For programs in the San Diego ecosystem evaluating CTDMO partners, the Excellos acquisition means OrganaBio now has local infrastructure, local relationships, and the same integrated apheresis-to-manufacturing model that OrganaBio has established across its Miami facilities.
OrganaBio’s CTDMO Vision
The Excellos acquisition is consistent with OrganaBio’s cell therapy network expansion roadmap. OrganaBio operates as a CTDMO — Cell Therapy Development and Manufacturing Organization — with the goal of building integrated starting material supply, cell processing, and manufacturing infrastructure in the markets where cell therapy clinical development is concentrated.
San Diego, through the Excellos infrastructure, becomes OrganaBio’s primary West Coast collection and manufacturing node. Additional locations — including Chicago, Houston, and other markets — are in development as part of the company’s geographic expansion strategy.
For information about OrganaBio’s San Diego capabilities or to discuss how the Excellos acquisition affects your program, contact OrganaBio directly.
Source from OrganaBio
FDA-registered. ISO 7 cGMP. Ships anywhere in the US.
San Diego & West Coast ServicescGMP ManufacturingFrequently Asked Questions
What does the Excellos acquisition add to OrganaBio’s capabilities?
Excellos Labs is a San Diego-based GMP cell and gene therapy CDMO with ISO 7 clean room infrastructure and established clinical manufacturing capabilities. The acquisition integrates Excellos’s San Diego facility into OrganaBio’s bi-coastal network, adding a co-located apheresis collection and GMP cell processing capability on the West Coast. For OrganaBio, this expands the geographic reach of the CPC model — collection and processing in the same building — to the Southern California biotech corridor. For programs that were previously shipping fresh leukapheresis material overnight from the East Coast, the San Diego CPC eliminates that transport gap and the associated degradation in T cell subset integrity.
How does the San Diego facility change the bi-coastal network for Southern California programs?
Prior to the Excellos integration, OrganaBio’s West Coast presence included an Irvine CPC and a Hayward Bay Area laboratory. The San Diego facility adds coverage in one of the most concentrated cell therapy development markets in the US — San Diego hosts a significant cluster of CAR-T, TCR therapy, and NK cell therapy programs. Programs in this corridor can now access fresh GMP-grade leukopaks processed within 30 minutes of collection without overnight transit. The Excellos facility also brings existing GMP manufacturing infrastructure, which expands OrganaBio’s CTDMO capabilities in Southern California to include drug product manufacturing services in addition to starting material supply.
What manufacturing services does the combined OrganaBio/Excellos facility in San Diego provide?
The San Diego facility, operating under OrganaBio’s quality system post-acquisition, provides: leukapheresis collection for fresh GMP-grade starting material, PBMC isolation and NK cell enrichment under ISO 7 cGMP conditions, cryopreservation services, cell expansion and activation support, and access to OrganaBio’s broader CTDMO service portfolio for programs requiring full drug product manufacturing. Contact the OrganaBio team for a current scope-of-services summary, as manufacturing capabilities may expand as the facility integration is completed. For programs requiring clinical manufacturing in Southern California, the combined facility offers proximity to patient populations in the San Diego and Los Angeles metro areas.
How does the acquisition affect existing Excellos clients and ongoing programs?
Existing Excellos clients operating under active manufacturing agreements should expect continuity of service under OrganaBio’s quality system. The quality agreement structure, facility registration, and cGMP compliance infrastructure carry forward under the acquisition. OrganaBio would typically perform a quality system integration audit and update relevant SOPs and batch record templates to align with its organization-wide quality standards — but ongoing manufacturing programs should not experience supply disruption. Clients with questions about specific program continuity, updated quality agreements, or documentation packages post-acquisition should contact OrganaBio directly at the new San Diego facility.
What does the Excellos acquisition mean for West Coast biotech programs that need a local CTDMO?
Southern California biotech programs that previously had to ship starting material to East Coast facilities for clinical manufacturing now have a local option under OrganaBio’s CTDMO umbrella. The practical benefits: collection and manufacturing in the same geographic market (relevant for autologous programs where patient proximity matters), same-day or same-building processing for fresh leukapheresis, and access to OrganaBio’s full documentation infrastructure for IND CMC packaging. For programs that are in early development and have not yet committed to a CTDMO, the San Diego facility provides an alternative to cross-country supply chains that adds geographic redundancy to the bi-coastal network.
