IMUTRAN, the British company pioneering the use of animal organs for
human transplants, was bought last week by the Swiss-based drugs giant
Sandoz.
Last year Imutran achieved promising results with its techniques for
preventing the rejection of 鈥渪enotransplants鈥� using genetically engineered
organs from pigs.
Sandoz has invested heavily in transplant technology and has 99.5 per cent of
the market in cyclosporin, one of the main drugs for preventing the rejection of
donor organs. David White, research director of Imutran, says that the two
companies can now collaborate on research that will benefit both.
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Imutran hopes that with the backing of Sandoz, the development of
xenotransplant techniques might speed up, although White is cautious: 鈥淲e can
throw money at the problem till we鈥檙e blue in the face, but pigs won鈥檛 grow any
quicker, not even if you feed them dollar bills.鈥�