London - A company is preparing to use a liver from a pig to treat a human patient, it emerged yesterday. The Cambridge-based firm - Imutran - stressed it did not have immediate plans for transplantation but was currently hoping to be allowed to use a pig's liver outside a human body, like a kidney dialysis machine.
Dr Corin Saville, chief operating officer of Imutran, said the animal organ would be a temporary support for a patient with liver failure awaiting a human replacement.