Biotech company opens unit to breed pigs for human transplants

Biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies (LCT) has opened its first dedicated quarantine pig farm to breed piglets to be slaughtered for tissue to be grafted into humans.

The first $2.5 million unit will house 50 pigs - and the company has said that it may build as many as 80 units in Southland.

Health Minister Tony Ryall last week gave approval to start clinical trials transplanting pig islet cells into eight type 1 diabetics at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

It is also considering using brain cells from neo-natal pigs in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases, among others, and has already carried out pre-clinical trials in the United States.

The first pig breeding unit - designed by Invercargill architect David Mollinson - was opened by Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt at a function attended by LCT chief operating officer Paul Tan, founding director David Collinson and medical director Bob Elliot, who carried out the original research.

Mr Collinson has estimated the industry could be worth possibly billions of dollars to the Southland economy.

Dr Tan and Professor Elliot said the pigs would move into the first unit once it had been fumigated and all the pigs re-tested for diseases.

"There are separate maternity and holding units," said Dr Tan.

"This upgrades and expands our pig facility to accommodate a sufficient number of pigs to support clinical trials in New Zealand and internationally over the next two years."

Construction of further units will depend on the success of the clinical trials, of its product, DiabecellB, designed to help diabetes sufferers produce more insulin.

The tissue from the piglet pancreas is coated with a seaweed gel to avoid triggering the immune system of the human patient, which could require use of immunosuppressive drugs.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's own immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (called beta cells).

Five to 10 per cent of the more than 200 million diabetics worldwide have insulin dependent type 1 diabetes, which is associated with kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, life-threatening cardiovascular disease and limb amputations.

Current treatment options include multiple daily injections of insulin.

The long-snouted pig breed was removed from the Auckland Islands 400km south of Bluff in January 1999.

They were put into quarantine at Invercargill, but their stay dragged out to 15 months when tests showed they could be infected with trichinella and salmonella - potential health threats to the commercial pork industry.

On release, they were sold off to hobbyists and show farms for display with other livestock.

The company has said the fact that it held its herd in quarantine barns and that they were tested routinely and repeatedly for disease was a key factor in gaining regulatory approval for the diabetes implants.

- NZPA