Xenotransplants go to (clinical) trial

 Yesterday's post was about a man who received a pig kidney as an exceptional "compassionate use" case. But now some formal clinical trials of xenotransplantation are beginning. 

 Medpage Today has the story:

First Clinical Trial of Pig Kidney Transplants Gets Underway
— Study's initial transplant was performed successfully
by Associated Press, November 4, 2025  

"The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives.

"United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study's initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

"It's the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second U.S. company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin its own pig kidney clinical trial in the coming months. These are the first known clinical trials of what is called xenotransplantation in the world. 

...

"Robert Montgomery, MD, PhD, of NYU, who led the transplant team, told the Associated Press his hospital has a list of other patients interested in joining the small trial, which will initially include six people. If all goes well, it could be expanded to up to 50 as additional transplant centers join.

"The FDA is allowing the rigorous studies after a series of so-called "compassionate use" experiments, with mixed results. The first two gene-edited pig kidney transplants were short-lived.

"Then doctors began working with patients who badly needed a kidney but weren't as sick as prior recipients. At NYU, an Alabama woman's pig kidney lasted 130 days before she had to return to dialysis. The latest record, 271 days, was set by a New Hampshire man transplanted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston; he also is back on dialysis after the pig organ began declining and was removed last month. Others known to be living with a pig kidney are another MGH patient and a woman in China. "