Overview
- eGenesis received FDA investigational new drug clearance to begin a multi-phase study of its EGEN-2784 pig kidneys in about 30 dialysis-dependent adults aged 50 and older.
- Massachusetts General Hospital said its third recipient, 54-year-old Bill Stewart, was discharged a week after his June 14 surgery and is back home without dialysis.
- Tim Andrews, 67, has surpassed seven months dialysis-free after his January transplant, the longest survival yet for a pig kidney in a living person.
- The donor pigs are engineered with CRISPR to knock out alpha-gal, remove porcine genes tied to rejection, add seven human genes to modulate immunity and coagulation, and inactivate porcine endogenous retroviruses.
- United Therapeutics is preparing a parallel FDA-cleared study as researchers move to evaluate safety and durability across broader patients to help address a U.S. kidney shortage exceeding 100,000 people on waitlists.