VERIGRAFT's technology produces personalised blood vessel transplants. In short, a donated tissue is decellularised, removing donor cells and DNA. The resulting acellular extracellular matrix scaffold is subsequently reconditioned and recellularised with a small sample of peripheral blood from the patient. This unique technology thereby turns an allogeneic (“foreign”) tissue into an autologous (“personalised”) one, avoiding the complications of transplant rejection by the patients´ immune system.
The decellularisation and reconditioning/recellularisation process for blood vessels is protected by strong patents and trade secrets and has been optimised and industrialised at VERIGRAFT. The process has been successfully utilized in vitro to engineer donated cadaveric human vein segments containing valves, and structural integrity and valve function was confirmed. Such personalised tissue engineered veins (P-TEV) have been implanted into the vena cava of eight pigs with no immunosuppression. After five weeks the grafts were exposed and explanted. No rejection, infection, thrombosis or mechanical failure was observed.
VERIGRAFT's P-TEV product will initially be focused on severe chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), where there is a large unmet medical need. The clinical trial program for the treatment of CVI will be initiated in Europe upon Clinical Trial Authorization acceptance in 2018. Limited marketing authorization in a single EU country (e.g. Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland) for P-TEV is expected two years later with subsequent expansion to additional markets (e.g. all of Europe, the US, China, Japan).
CVI is an incurable condition that occurs when the one-way valves in the deep veins of the legs that normally keep blood moving towards the heart do not work effectively. This malfunction causes blood to pool in the lower extremities, resulting in painful swelling and skin ulceration. The most severe stages of CVI affect at least 1.5 million patients in Europe and North America with about 300,000 new cases per year. Today, these patients are treated symptomatically with compression stockings and superficial surgery, and there are no competitive fully-biological CVI cures in development. At an anticipated market penetration of 10-15%, a P-TEV product would benefit between 150K and 225K patients annually. This is a market of at least Euro 2B. The market for VERIGRAFT's personalized tissue-engineered products will be expanded eventually to address additional vascular indications, such as arterial disease.
VERIGRAFT will generate revenues from i) the manufacturing and distribution of ready to transplant P-TEV products in Europe and USA and ii) the sale of reagents and IP rights to licensees in the rest of the world. Commercial distribution of P-TEV is expected to begin by 2020.
This project will commercialise P-TEV - a unique personalised tissue engineered vein for the treatment of patients with severe Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI).
CVI is a progressive medical condition in which the valves of the deep veins of the leg are not functioning properly.
The most severe stage is CVI with leg ulceration. No effective treatment is available and a large number of patients would directly benefit from venous vascular surgery.
These patients cannot be cured today because no suitable grafts for replacement of the dysfunctional venous valves have yet been developed.
There are no synthetic products which could replace the function of the bicuspid valves found in the leg veins and the risks associated with allotransplantation are too high.
VeriGraft's technology is the first one positioned to break this paradigm and fill the existing market gap.
The technology allows the personalisation of blood vessels. In short, a donated tissue is decellularised, removing all immunogenic donor cells and DNA.
This results in a clean extracellular matrix scaffold with intact 3D structural properties.
Subsequently, this scaffold is reconditioned/recellularised using a small sample of peripheral blood.
This unique technology turns an allogeneic (“foreign”) tissue into an autologous (“personalised”) one and thus avoids transplant rejection without the need for immunosuppression.
