Japan Startup to Seek Approval for Pig Kidney Transplants in 2029

Kamakura, Kanagawa Pref., July 21 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese startup said Tuesday that it plans to file for conditional approval of pig-to-human kidney transplants in 2029.

PorMedTec, the startup based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, plans to begin Japan's first clinical trials of such transplants at Hokkaido University Hospital in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in Kanagawa as early as 2028.

The startup will produce cloned pigs using cells from genetically modified pigs developed by U.S. biotech firm eGenesis. It will develop facilities to extract kidneys from these pigs near the two hospitals in 2027.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Kazunari Tanabe, a doctor at Shonan Kamakura General Hospital, explained the training he received on extracting kidneys from pigs. "The structure of the blood vessels and the method of removing (kidneys) were almost the same as those of humans, and the equipment was also the same," Tanabe said. "We were able to do it safely."

In the United States, pig kidney transplants were performed on four patients in their 50s and 60s who had received dialysis for at least two years, and they were off dialysis for up to about nine months.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]