NEWS RELEASE
Government experts sound death knell for pig organ transplants
The Government's expert advisory committee on cross-species transplants
has expressed serious doubts about the prospects of successful pig-to-human
organ transplants.
The committee, called the United Kingdom Xenotransplantation Regulatory
Authority (UKXIRA), held its third annual public meeting yesterday
at Westminster. The Authority's Third Annual Report was also launched
at the meeting.
In September 2000, the Authority had been sent an enormous cache
of documents describing Imutran/Novartis's programme of pig-to-primate
organ transplants. Imutran, a subsidiary of Novartis Pharma and
based in Cambridge, had been seen as a world leader in the development
of pig organs for transplant purposes. The documents had been leaked
to anti-vivisection group Uncaged Campaigns, and were reported on
in the Daily Express on 21st and 22nd September. They showed horrific
animal suffering in the research, revealed the misleading nature
of Imutran/Novartis publicity, and laid bare the research's startling
lack of progress. The information clearly has influenced the Authority's
thinking, though because of an injunction granted to Imutran/Novartis
preventing publication of the documents on grounds of breach of
confidentiality and copyright, the Authority would not discuss the
documents and the accompanying Diaries of Despair report.
Members of the Authority stunned the audience as they acknowledged
the lack of progress in overcoming the powerful rejection of pig
organs by the human body and the growing fears over the virus dangers
of pig organs. Authority member John Dark, a Newcastle heart transplant
surgeon, told the audience that research involving the implantation
of transgenic pig organs into primates, such as that conducted by
Imutran/Novartis, had yielded "disappointing" results
and had lead up a "blind alley". He concluded with deliberate
irony: "Xenotransplantation is the future of transplants -and
it always will be!"
Another UKXIRA member, Professor Herb Sewell, an immunologist based
in Nottingham, said he could not see progress "within a ten
year time scale, if at all." He also warned that the public
predictions made by Imutran in 1995 of human trials of pig organs
during 1996, emphasised the need for professionals to engage with
the public in an accurate and balanced way.
In his presentation, virologist Professor Robin Weiss (Windeyer
Institute of Medical Sciences) was scathing about Imutran/Novartis's
approach to investigating the danger of viruses crossing from pigs
to humans as a result of the cross-species transplants. He said
he found it "extraordinary" that, despite his advice,
the company had only searched for one class of pig viruses in a
study of patients who had been exposed to living pig tissue. He
was also critical in general about the failure of the company to
conduct sufficient research into the problem in the past six years.
The danger to public health posed by pig viruses has been one of
the most persistent obstacles to the technology of cross-species
transplants.
The Authority was also critical of the decision by Imutran/Novartis
to switch its pig-to-primate transplant research from the UK to
the US and Canada, which lack animal welfare regulations. The Chairman
of the Authority, Lord Habgood (former Archbishop of York), told
the audience that the UKXIRA that "scientific research involving
the use of animals is best conducted in countries where appropriate
regulatory controls are in place to ensure that due regard is given
to animal welfare."
Dr Maggy Jennings, an Authority member and a senior RSPCA official,
focussed on the "serious and substantial" costs to pigs,
primates and other animals in terms of suffering and death. She
stated that the animal suffering had not been sufficiently considered
when determining whether xenotransplantation research should be
permitted by the Government. With the prospect of successful pig
organ transplants receding, she recommended that the ethical question
of whether the "benefits" to humans outweighed the substantial
suffering endured by animals needs to be re-examined.
Dan Lyons, Director of Uncaged Campaigns, was
present at the meeting. He said:
"The death knell for pig organ transplants has
been sounded. The Authority has finally arrived at the position
we have been arguing for for five years: pig organ transplants are
cruel, dangerous, and unlikely to even work. Furthermore, the positive
developments in alternative approaches to dealing with organ failure
that were identified by the Authority show that pig organ transplants
are unnecessary. We urge Novartis to do the decent thing and stop
this cruel and hazardous research."
For access to the full UKXIRA report - see especially section 6
- visit www.doh.gov.uk/ukxann3.htm.
For further information and interviews, please contact
Dan Lyons on 07733 326068. The UKXIRA can also be contacted at 020
7972 4822.
Uncaged Campaigns, 08 February 2001
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