Gothenburg, June 7, 2017
University of Gothenburg, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and VERIGRAFT were granted support for a collaborative project with the title “Personalized Tissue Engineered Arteries (P-TEA) as a Novel Cure for Cardiovascular Disease”. The project’s total budget of 2,3 million SEK will be supported by Swelife, Medtech4Health and by the region Västra Götaland with 700 000 SEK each. The project will perform a proof of concept study in large animals, characterize P-TEA in vitro to generate preclinical documentation and undertake a technology transfer to industrial GMP production of P-TEA.
“We are very happy about this grant, because it allows us to generate important safety data to bring our product one step closer to the phase of clinical development. Furthermore, this will be a key project for the whole field of regenerative medicine, generating unique in vivo data. Together with our strong and committed partners, we will make our ambitions become true in this innovation project.” says Dr Petter Björquist. CEO of VERIGRAFT.
VERIGRAFT is a regenerative medicine company, located in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company generates personalized tissue-engineered transplants for use in regenerative medicine. The company’s unique technology platform turns donated allogeneic (“foreign”) tissue into an autologous (“personalized”) tissue and thus avoids transplant rejection and the need for life-long immunosuppression. Donated, allogeneic tissue is patient-individualized by a combination of DC (Decellularization) and RC (Reconditioning/Recellularization) processes. VERIGRAFT’s development pipeline comprises products in the areas of vascular regeneration and peripheral nerve repair.
The University of Gothenburg is one of the largest universities in the Nordic countries with 37000 students and 6000 staff members and Sahlgrenska University Hospital is associated with the university as a teaching hospital.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is fully owned by the Swedish state. RISE supports all manner of innovative processes, and is instrumental in developing the future-proofing of products, technologies, and services. Through collaboration with academia, industry and the public sector, RISE contributes to the competitiveness of the Swedish business community on an international level.
Swelife and Medtech4Health are national strategic innovation programs, funded by the Swedish Government via the Swedish innovation agency, Vinnova. Swelife and Medtech4Health support projects where healthcare, academia and industry collaborate across organizational boundaries and between regions to achieve long-term effects that benefit Swedish Life Science and, in turn, public health.
Region Västra Götaland is a region in West Sweden with the assignment to contribute to a thriving region as a good place to live and work and for future generations to grow up in.