United Therapeutics Announces the First Comprehensive Review Publication on Xenotransplantation

United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR), a public benefit corporation, today announced the online availability of a review manuscript titled “Physiological Basis for Xenotransplantation from Genetically-Modified Pigs to Humans: A Review,” in the journal Physiological Reviews. The manuscript is the first detailed overview of the current state of the xenotransplantation industry and, in one place, collects the vast history of the technology used to generate genetically engineered pigs and the research conducted to date on the xenotransplantation of porcine hearts and kidneys.

The manuscript can be found at Physiological Reviews using the following URL: https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00041.2023

Xenotransplantation is one of four organ manufacturing platforms being developed by United Therapeutics, the goal of which is to provide an unlimited supply of tolerable, transplantable organs to patients with end-stage organ disease.

“We’ve seen the collective efforts of scientists over the last several decades lead to meaningful scientific advances, from animal cloning to gene editing, that has allowed the industry to enhance the suitability of porcine organs for human use,” said Leigh Peterson, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Product Development and Xenotransplantation at United Therapeutics and lead author of the manuscript. “We believe the continued progress by United Therapeutics and our scientific collaborators will lead to the regular use of porcine organs to help patients in need.”

The authors of the manuscript are Leigh Peterson, Ph.D.; Sir Magdi Yacoub, OM, FRS; David Ayares, Ph.D; Kazuhiko Yamada, M.D., Ph.D; Daniel Eisenson, M.D.; Bartley Griffith, M.D., FACS, FRCS; Muhammad Mohiuddin, MBBS; Will Eyestone, Ph.D; J. Craig Venter, Ph.D; Ryszard T. Smolenski, M.D., Ph.D, and Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D.

United Therapeutics has three xenotransplantation programs in development with the goal to provide hearts and kidneys to patients in need. The UHeart is a heart from 10-gene modified pig, the UKidney is a kidney from a 10 gene-modified kidney, and the UThymoKidney is a kidney and thymus from a one gene-modified GalSafe pig.

Beyond xenotransplantation, United Therapeutics has six other organ manufacturing programs in the lung, kidney, and liver using three distinct platforms: regenerative medicine, bio-artificial organs, and 3-D organ printing. United Therapeutics announced in January 2024 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared its miroliverELAP therapy for enrollment of a phase 1 study in patients with acute liver failure which is expected to occur in 2024. United Therapeutics believes that this study will be the first human clinical trial of a manufactured organ.