As the new year opened, a new company quietly opened in the east metro. Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne Corp. and St. Paul-based Wilson Wolf Corp. are two of the three joint venture partners behind the new operation: New Brighton-based ScaleReady.

The company, which currently has about 20 employees, is starting small but thinking big. Their mission calls for revolutionizing the business of cell and gene therapy manufacturing. It officially launched on Jan. 6.

ScaleReady general manager Adam Bryan calls it a “life science tools company.”

The third partner in the joint venture is Germany-based Fresenius Kabi, a large global health care company. ScaleReady is equally owned by the three companies.

“We operate in a very young, fast-moving industry,” said Bryan. “The field of cell and gene therapy has only really been accelerating quickly for about the last seven years…Each of the three parent organizations has technology that’s relevant to solving these next-generation manufacturing challenges for these therapies that are just emerging.”

ScaleReady is a not a manufacturer. Instead, it will provide sales, marketing, and application support to its customers.

“The team in place today supports over 400 customers around the globe. Our technologies are included in over 150 clinical trials,” said Bryan. “Our customers are the ones that are doing the manufacturing. We are the technology providers, if you will.”

ScaleReady’s current offices are inside a 51,500-square-foot former industrial building in New Brighton that Wilson Wolf overhauled last year to expand its manufacturing capacity.

The privately held Wilson Wolf, founded in 1998, focuses on cell therapy for cancer patients.

Bio-Techne reported sales of $738.7 million for its fiscal 2020, which ended June 30. The company has grown at a strong clip in recent years, driven in part by numerous acquisitions.

Bio-Techne will report its second quarter fiscal 2021 results on February 2.