Blog

Before BioBridge Global, there were horses and stables

February 18, 2019

Let’s saddle up and look back at what used to be on the property of BioBridge Global, Dellview shopping center (including Walmart), Credit Human headquarters, Bill Miller BBQ and the hotels around it, and the Granados senior center.

In 1994, South Texas Blood & Tissue Center acquired land to build an 80,000-square-foot Headquarters Facility. In 2008, another 40,000-square-foot building was added, the Donor Pavilion. In 2018, 10,000 square feet was added through the Alamo Administration Building.

All of these buildings have one thing in common: They are on land that once was part of the well-known Vance View Stables.

James Milton Vance built his home and Hillside Dairy Ranch on the property in 1888. Vance and his wife had five children, including Zelime Vance. Zelime Vance married Frank Gillespie, who founded the Gillespie Ford dealership.

RegenMed SA shows potential of region’s regenerative medicine industry

February 12, 2019

This year’s RegenMed SA conference at the Wyndham Riverwalk brought the biomedical community together to talk about regenerative medicine research happening in local universities and research labs.

Participation in the event – more than 200 people registered, the most in its five-year history – demonstrated the interest in regenerative medicine in the region.

But Becky Cap, Chief Operating Officer of GenCure and one of the conference’s organizers, said the event was far more than a show of interest in a growing field.

FDA modifying medical device process

February 11, 2019

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed new guidance for the approvals process for medical devices.

For more than 40 years, device makers obtained an expedited approval if they could prove the new device was “substantially equivalent” to one in use when the regulation went into effect in 1976, according to a report by CNBC.

The change is designed to encourage manufacturers to base new products on devices no older than 10 years.

The change will not directly affect BioBridge Global and its subsidiaries, as we don’t manufacture or market medical devices at this time directly, said Adrienne Mendoza, Vice President for Global Quality & Compliance.

STBTC and its partners celebrate one-year anniversary of Brothers in Arms

February 4, 2019

For patients like George Ortiz, the program has been lifesaving.

Ortiz, a construction worker from Jourdanton, suffered a severe leg injury last year while on the job, causing a dramatic loss in blood.

“What I remember is standing on top of the hole-drilling machine and removing some pins so that the rest of the stem that drills the hole could come down. Then the machine squished my leg. It felt like it tore it off," he said.

Blood cancer survival rates improving dramatically

January 28, 2019

Survival rates for patients with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma – diseases that not that long ago were considered all but incurable – have increased dramatically.

According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with leukemia from 1960-63 was just 14 percent. Fifty years later, it reached 61 percent.

For Hodgkin lymphoma, the five-year survival rate has gone from 40 percent to 88 percent. Five-year survival rates for non-Hodgkin lymphoma has also improved from 31 percent to 73 percent since the 1960s.

“I can’t help but be proud and gratified that I work for an organization that has helped improve the survival rate of blood cancers,” said Dr. Rachel Beddard, Chief Medical Officer at BioBridge Global.

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