Personalized Vein Therapy Aims to Cure, Not Just Manage, Chronic Disease

SAN ANTONIO, TX – June 24, 2026 – In the relentless march of medical innovation, the most profound breakthroughs often shift the paradigm from managing symptoms to addressing the root cause. A new collaboration announced today aims to do just that for millions suffering from a debilitating, yet often overlooked, condition. San Antonio’s BBG Advanced Therapies has partnered with Swedish biotechnology firm VERIGRAFT to bring a novel, personalized tissue-engineered vein therapy to the United States, potentially transforming the treatment landscape for Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI).

The partnership will see BBG Advanced Therapies, a subsidiary of the nonprofit BioBridge Global, support the U.S. development and manufacturing readiness for VERIGRAFT’s lead product, P-TEV. This move signals a critical step in preparing for American clinical trials and eventually, making a potentially curative therapy available to patients whose current options are severely limited.

The Crippling Burden of a Hidden Disease

For the estimated 6 to 7 million Americans living with its advanced stages, Chronic Venous Insufficiency is a progressive and painful reality. The condition arises when the tiny valves inside veins, responsible for pushing blood back toward the heart, become damaged. Gravity takes over, causing blood to pool in the legs. This leads to a cascade of symptoms: persistent swelling, chronic pain, skin discoloration, and in severe cases, venous leg ulcers—open sores that refuse to heal and are prone to infection.

While CVI is rarely life-threatening, its impact on quality of life is immense. Current treatments are almost entirely focused on symptom management. Patients are prescribed a routine of leg elevation, lifestyle changes, and the daily use of compression stockings to manually assist blood flow. More invasive procedures, such as using heat or chemicals to close off damaged veins, can offer relief but do not restore the original, healthy function. These are, in essence, workarounds for a fundamental mechanical failure.

The unmet need is for a solution that repairs the underlying problem. “For people living with severe chronic venous insufficiency, the options today treat the symptoms, not the cause. P-TEV is built to change that,” said Petter Björquist, Chief Executive Officer at VERIGRAFT.

Engineering a Biological Solution

VERIGRAFT’s P-TEV (Personalized Tissue-Engineered Vein) therapy represents a leap forward in regenerative medicine. Instead of destroying a faulty vein, the goal is to replace it with a new, fully biological, and functional one. The process is a sophisticated blend of tissue engineering and personalization.

It begins with a donated human vein. This tissue is put through a proprietary process called decellularization, which gently removes all the donor's cells and genetic material. What remains is a natural, biological scaffold—the vein’s original architecture, stripped of anything that could trigger an immune rejection in a patient. This “blank canvas” is then personalized by infusing it with components from the recipient's own blood. The patient’s cells colonize the scaffold, effectively turning it into their own living tissue. Once implanted, this new vein segment is designed to integrate seamlessly, restore proper valve function, and grow with the body.

A key advantage of this approach is the elimination of the need for lifelong immunosuppressant drugs, which are standard for most organ and tissue transplants. These drugs carry their own significant risks, including increased susceptibility to infection and other long-term side effects. By using the patient's own cells, P-TEV aims to sidestep the body's rejection mechanisms entirely.

A Strategic Partnership for U.S. Expansion

Bringing such a complex, living therapy from a European lab to American patients is a monumental task, fraught with logistical and regulatory hurdles. This is where the strategic nature of the collaboration becomes clear. VERIGRAFT, having honed its technology and gathered clinical experience in Europe, needed a partner with deep expertise in the specific demands of the U.S. advanced therapies market.

BBG Advanced Therapies, part of the larger BioBridge Global nonprofit enterprise, provides the critical infrastructure for this transition. Under the agreement, the San Antonio-based organization will manage key readiness activities, including the sourcing of donor veins, establishing manufacturing and testing operations, and preparing the operational groundwork for U.S. clinical trials. This is the unglamorous but essential work that turns a scientific concept into a scalable medical product.

“At BBG Advanced Therapies, we are dedicated to helping innovators translate promising scientific advances into therapies that can reach patients,” said Adrienne Mendoza, the company's Chief Operating Officer. “Our collaboration with VERIGRAFT is a perfect example.”

This partnership serves as a modern blueprint for commercializing Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs). It allows an international innovator to plug into an existing, specialized ecosystem, de-risking market entry and accelerating the path to clinical trials.

San Antonio's Growing Stake in the Bio-Future

This collaboration is more than a win for two companies; it is a significant validation of San Antonio's emergence as a key hub in the global biotechnology landscape. By attracting a late-clinical-stage company like VERIGRAFT, the city demonstrates it has built an infrastructure capable of handling the next generation of medicine.

BioBridge Global and its subsidiaries represent a comprehensive ecosystem, providing services that span from blood and tissue collection to laboratory testing, clinical trial support, and now, complex biomanufacturing. Locating BBG Advanced Therapies within the VelocityTX biomedical incubator complex further embeds it within a network of innovation.

“VERIGRAFT’s approach represents an important innovation in regenerative medicine, and we look forward to bringing our extensive capabilities to their meaningful work,” said Martin Landon, Chief Executive Officer of BioBridge Global.

For a field as demanding as personalized regenerative medicine, having a partner that understands the entire supply chain—from donor to patient—is a decisive advantage. As VERIGRAFT’s CEO Petter Björquist noted, “Developing clinical trials takes a partner that understands how demanding it is to deliver a personalized therapy like P-TEV. That is why we’re working with BBG Advanced Therapies.”

The collaboration builds on VERIGRAFT's clinical experience in Europe and strengthens the operational foundation needed to support future development activities in the United States.