Tokyo Biotech CellFiber Opens Its First US Base in Philadelphia
A Japanese cell culture company has chosen Philadelphia for its first step into the United States.
Tokyo-based CellFiber began operating its first international subsidiary on Oct. 1, with office and laboratory space at CIC Philadelphia, the company announced Oct. 9. The site will support American drugmakers, contract manufacturers and research institutions developing stem cell and CAR-T cell therapies.
The company’s core technology grows cells inside thin tubes of alginate hydrogel, a gel drawn from seaweed. Cells grown this way are expected to keep their function better, survive longer and stay more uniform in quality than cells grown by conventional methods. In December 2025 the company introduced the Zeito Plus System, a machine that produces the cell fibers at scale to manufacturing standards.
Manufacturing is the central bottleneck of cell therapy. A single patient’s cells must be grown for weeks in sterile facilities, pushing treatment costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and limiting how many patients can be treated. The Philadelphia site will work on adopting the technology, developing production processes and scaling them up with local partners.
“We are excited to establish our first international site in Philadelphia, a city often called ‘Cellicon Valley’ for its concentration of cell and gene therapy innovation,” said Kazuchika Furuishi, the company’s president and chief executive. “Philadelphia played a central role in developing the world’s first CAR-T cell therapy, and it remains home to leading institutions and companies at the forefront of the field.”
The first CAR-T therapy, Kymriah, grew out of research at the University of Pennsylvania and was approved in 2017. The Philadelphia region has since drawn a dense cluster of cell and gene therapy companies, research institutions and large contract manufacturing operations.
“Being here allows us to work directly with the teams developing cell therapies,” Furuishi said. “This site is the starting point for taking our technology global and helping more patients benefit from regenerative medicine.”
CellFiber was founded in Tokyo in 2015 and describes its mission as “connecting cells to patients.”
