Smithfield foods researches pig organs for human transplant
Pork producer Smithfield Foods is looking to set up a bioscience unit to provide pig organs for medical and scientific research. The firm already has agreements to supply pig organs to two unknown entities, according to sources cited by Reuters. Smithfield is also the only pork producer to have joined a public-private tissue engineering consortium funded by the US Department of Defence. It's hoped that pig organs will one day be used for transplantation into humans. “We want to signal to the medical device and science communities that this is an area we’re focused on," said Courtney Stanton, VP of Smithfield’s bioscience unit. 
The world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, has reportedly launched a bioscience unit to expand its role in supplying pig parts for medical uses. The unit’s ultimate goal is to sell pig organs for transplantation into humans.

Although pig-human organ transplants are years away, recent scientific advances are helping scientists overcome obstacles that halted prior attempts to use pigs to supply replacement parts for sick or injured patients.

“Our bread and butter has always been the bacon, sausage, fresh pork – very much a food-focused operation,” VP of Smithfield’s bioscience unit, Courtney Stanton, told Reuters. “We want to signal to the medical device and science communities that this is an area we’re focused on – that we’re not strictly packers.”

Smithfield is the only pork producer among healthcare companies like Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) to join a public-private tissue engineering consortium funded by an $80 million U.S. Dept. of Defense grant. Abbott (NYSE:ABT) and United Therapeutics are also part of the group.

On average, 22 people die every day waiting for a transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

More than 118,000 people are on the transplant waiting list in the U.S. While the number of transplants rose to 33,000 last year, the supply is not sufficient to meet the need.

Smithfield already harvests medical materials from the 16 million hogs it slaughters every year. The company owns more than half of its farms and hopes to sell directly to researchers and healthcare companies.

Smithfield already has deals in the works to supply pig organs to 2 unnamed entities, Reuters reported.

“It’s just a huge potential space, and to be at the leading edge and focused on building those relationships is critical,” Stanton said.

Pigs are an ideal source for transplants, according to some researchers, because their organs are similar to humans. At the time of slaughter, a pig heart is about the size of an adult human heart.

Prior efforts at xenotransplantation have failed because of genetic differences that caused organ rejection or viruses that were an infection risk. Novartis spiked its $1 billion pig-to-human transplant efforts in 2001 because of safety concerns passing pig viruses on to humans.

Harvard Medical School genetics professor and researcher George Church used CRISPR-Cas9, a gene editing technology, to trim away at potentially harmful virus genes in pig organs.

Church formed eGenesis Bio to develop humanized pigs that don’t trigger an immune response or transfer viruses to people. The firm raised $38 million in venture funding last month.

Church told the news outlet that the 1st transplants involving humanized pig organs could happen in a clinical trial later this year.

Stanton didn’t rule out breeding genetically modified animals, but said that Smithfield’s 1st ventures will likely involve whole pig organs that undergo decellularization – existing cells would be washed away and replaced with human cells.

Church said he welcomes the involvement of a big pork producer like Smithfield.

“Even though we’ve got companies like eGenesis that would make the first pigs, you still need someone who will breed them and do it to scale,” he said.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.