The Startup Behind The First Pig-Human Kidney Transplant 'Eyes' Hearts And Livers Next

Forbes

Biotech startup eGenesis developed a gene-edited kidney that was successfully transplanted into a living patient last week. Its CEO says the company is just getting started.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2024/03/27/the-startup-behind-the-first-pig-human-kidney-transplant-is-targeting-hearts-and-livers-next/?sh=4933b6c34929  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, March 30.

00:05 Today on Forbes, the startup behind the first pig human kidney transplant is targeting hearts

00:11 and livers next.

00:14 Just over a week ago, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital announced that for the first

00:18 time a living human patient had received a kidney transplant from a pig.

00:24 This scientific breakthrough represents hope for dozens of people who die every day waiting

00:29 on an organ transplant, according to the hospital's transplant director, who spoke at a press

00:33 conference following the announcement.

00:36 Of course, it wasn't as simple as just going down to the farm.

00:40 The kidney was developed by Massachusetts-based startup eGenesis, which has been working on

00:44 gene-editing porcine organs so that they can be safely transplanted into humans for nearly

00:50 a decade.

00:51 But CEO Mike Curtis told Forbes that last week's milestone is only the beginning.

00:57 His company, which has raised $291 million in venture backing to date, aims to bring

01:02 its gene-editing technology for kidney, liver, and heart transplants into clinical trials

01:07 in the next two years, making it a disruptive player in a market that Grandview Research

01:12 estimates to be around $15 billion.

01:17 Curtis said, "We've shown that we actually have something that can help patients.

01:21 To me, it's all about getting into this new era of science and the ability to help people

01:25 that have very few treatment options."

01:29 There are over 100,000 people in the United States currently on transplant waiting lists,

01:34 but less than half of those will get a transplant in a given year due to the limited availability

01:39 of donor organs.

01:41 For decades, scientists have thought that animal organs might help some patients, even

01:46 if they're just a way to keep people alive long enough to receive a human organ.

01:51 Pigs are an ideal candidate to provide donor organs because they grow up quickly and their

01:55 organs have similar size and functionality compared to humans.

02:00 In this case, the patient was a 62-year-old man whose previously transplanted kidneys

02:05 had failed, and the procedure was allowed to move forward under the Food and Drug Administration's

02:10 Expanded Access Program, which allows patients with life-threatening conditions to take advantage

02:15 of experimental medicines or procedures.

02:18 This operation followed several different experiments using pig kidneys with brain-dead

02:23 donors, as well as two operations where living patients received transplanted, gene-edited

02:28 pig hearts.

02:29 Jamil Azi, a transplant surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who was not involved

02:35 in last week's surgery, praised the operation.

02:38 He told Forbes, "It's a great breakthrough that was decades in the making."

02:44 That said, he cautioned that a lot more data will be needed before this type of surgery

02:48 becomes routine for human patients.

02:50 A crucial question is how long a donated pig kidney will last in a human patient.

02:56 He said, "If it fails in two to three months, then we're far behind."

03:01 In 2023, two patients who received pig heart transplants developed by United Therapeutics

03:08 subsidiary Revivacor died a few weeks after their operations, though it's not yet completely

03:14 clear why.

03:16 One of the biggest challenges with an animal-human transplant is ensuring that the body of the

03:20 person receiving the transplant doesn't reject the animal organ outright.

03:25 This is already a problem with human-donated kidneys, and skeptics have said that the number

03:29 of differences between pigs and humans would make a transplant like this impossible.

03:35 That's where gene editing comes in.

03:37 For last week's operation, Curtis explained, it was necessary to genetically modify the

03:42 donor pig's kidney with seven different human genes, remove three pig genes, and 59 additional

03:48 pieces of DNA.

03:50 These edits ensure that the kidney won't be attacked by the patient's own immune system

03:54 to the point of rejection, though immunosuppressive drugs are required just as they are with human

03:58 organs.

03:59 For full coverage, check out Alex Knapp's piece on Forbes.com.

04:06 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:08 Thanks for tuning in.

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