Japanese startup PorMedTec announced Monday that it plans to conduct clinical trials of transplanting pig kidneys to humans at two hospitals in Japan as early as 2028.
The startup, spun out of Meiji University, has been importing the cells of
genetically engineered pigs developed by U.S. biotech startup eGenesis and
raising cloned pigs for transplant in Japan. The kidneys would be removed from the animals and transplanted into patients at Hokkaido University Hospital in Sapporo and Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Cross-species transplants are regarded as a potential solution to the chronic shortage of organs for transplant. PorMedTec said it would aim to obtain production and marketing authorization after confirming their safety through the trials.
The eGenesis pigs have undergone 69 gene edits to suppress immune rejection and reduce the risk of transferring porcine viruses to humans.
Four clinical trials using their kidneys have so far been conducted in the United States, resulting in patients who underwent the surgery reportedly not having to receive a dialysis treatment for around nine months, at the longest.
More than 300,000 people in Japan are currently on dialysis due to renal problems and some 15,000 are waiting for a kidney transplant.
Meanwhile, cases of transplants from people who have become brain-dead total roughly 200 a year, according to Japan Organ Transplant Network, indicating a serious organ shortage.
Amid such circumstances, the government designated cross-species transplants as one of the key areas in its public-private investment roadmap announced earlier this month.
The government hopes to establish domestic technologies and production systems to achieve early practical application.
“We will make efforts so that cross-species transplants will develop as useful medical technology,” said Hiroshi Nagashima, head of PorMedTec and a professor at Meiji University.
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