FIRMS VIE TO PERFECT PIG-HUMAN TRANSPLANTS.Byline: Lawrence M. Fisher The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times In the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , about 3,000 patients die annually waiting for an organ transplant organ transplant: see transplantation, medical. . Some 100,000 more die each year never having qualified for a place on the waiting list. But in the near future, victims of organ failure may have a new alternative: a heart, liver, lung or kidney from a genetically altered pig. Four small biotechnology companies are racing to develop pigs that could serve as organ donors for humans. Significant medical and technical hurdles remain, but the progress in recent months by these companies and their academic collaborators prompts some of their scientists to suggest that the first organ transplant from a pig to a human could occur within a year. Xenotransplants, as such cross-species operations are known, could be commonplace a decade from now, they say. The success of organ transplants between humans has created a steady increase in demand for organs, but the number of donors has leveled off. About 18,000 organ transplants are performed in the United States each year while 40,000 "qualified" patients wait for donor organs, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing United Network for Organ Sharing See UNOS. . Many more never qualify because of age or various conditions. Transplant specialists estimate that transplants could increase tenfold if there were enough organs available. The potential for xenotransplants has not been lost on major pharmaceutical and medical-device companies. Already, Sandoz Ltd., Baxter Healthcare Inc. and U.S. Surgical Corp. have made major investments in the four small companies in the field, and other corporations are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. an entry point. The companies breed the pigs and raise their offspring in sterile sties sties 1 n. Plural of sty1. v. Third person singular present tense of sty1. that are a biotechnology equivalent to a Silicon Valley chip maker's "clean room," and plan to sell their organs to hospitals. The sale of organs would complement the companies' existing businesses that sell immune suppressant drugs Immune suppressant drug Any drug that dampens immune responses and decreases inflammation. Mentioned in: Pulmonary Fibrosis , blood products and surgical instruments used for transplant operations. |
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