POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO ORGAN SHORTAGE

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First Cloned Pigs

Reuters Photo

By Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - PPL Therapeutics Plc, the British biopharmaceutical company

that helped to clone Dolly the sheep, has created the world's first cloned pigs.

The birth of the five cloned piglets -- Millie, Christa, is, Carrel and

Dotcom -- on March 5 could herald a new age in animal-to-human organ

transplants, or xenotransplantation.

Up to 68,000 people in the United States and 50,000 in Europe are waiting for

livers, kidney and hearts. The lists increase by 15 percent a year while the

number of organ donors are dwindling.

Scientists believe genetically engineered pigs, which can be bred quickly and

whose organs as about the same size as humans, could solve the problem.

``It opens the door to making modified pigs whose organs and cells can be

successfully transplanted into humans -- the only near-term solution to solving

the world-wide organ shortage crisis,'' PPL said.

Ppl Shares At Record High

The company, whose shares rose 19 percent to a record high of 195 pence on the

news, valuing the Edinburgh-based group some 96 million pounds ($150.9 million),

said it expects to begin clinical trials in the next four years.

``All the known technical hurdles have been overcome. It is now a case of

combining the various strategies into one male and one female pig, and breeding

from these,'' PPL managing director Ron said in the company statement.

``An end to the chronic organ shortage is now in sight.''

Analysts estimate the market for organ transplants could be worth $10 billion a

year. Cellular therapies, in which altered cells are transplanted to humans to

treat conditions such as diabetes, would add considerably more to that sum.

``It would be reasonable if they can get into the clinic within four years. This

is the most difficult step. The rest of the barriers are more dealable,''

Erling Refsum, of Nomura Securities, told Reuters.

``Dolly was a scientific breakthrough but this is bigger. This puts them clearly

up front in doing something that no one else can do. Dolly is just a way to

make medicines cheaply. This (pig) definitely puts them in the big league,'' he

added.

Cloned In The Usa

The piglets were cloned by PPL's U.S. staff in Blacksburg, Virginia, partly

supported by the U.S. government's National Institute of Standards and

Technology.

The five piglets were cloned from adult cells using nuclear transfer, the same

technique used to create Dolly. The PPL scientists hope to go one step further

by inactivating a gene that scientists suspect is involved in the human

rejection of pig organs.

One of the biggest problems doctors face in transplant surgery is rejection of

the donor organ by the recipient. Immunosuppressive drugs have increased the

success rate of human organs transplant.

PPL scientists plan to ``knock out'' a gene called alpha 1-3 gal transferase

which helps to produce a sugar in pig cells that the human immune system

recognizes as foreign.

``PPL has built up the technical expertise and intellectual property to be the

first to produce the type of pig which should become the industry standard for

xenotransplantation -- a pig lacking the alpha 1-3 gal transferase gene,'' Alan

Colman, PPL's research director said.

($1-.6362 Pound)

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