FDA may allow clinical trials of pig organ transplants into human patients

The most successful case to date of a pig organ being transplanted into a human occurred back in January, when specialists at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore transplanted a modified pig heart into 57-year-old David Bennett. The FDA approved the heart transplant transplant through an emergency authorization typically reserved for experimental procedures seen as a patient’s last chance at survival. Bennett did die of heart failure two months later.#pigheart

The modified pig heart that was transplanted into 57-year-old heart failure patient David Bennett at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore in January 2022. Image courtesy of the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The FDA would approve trials on a case-by-case basis, according to an anonymous source close to the situation.