Invercargill piglets will contribute to the xenotransplantation diabetes research which received approval from Minister of Health Tony Ryall this week.
While the eight type I diabetes patients in the two-year clinical trial would be from the Auckland area, some of the islet cells from pig pancreases used in their treatment would come from a special Invercargill herd, Living Cell Technolgies chief executive Paul Tan said.
Two herds would be used - one in Kumeu, north of Auckland, and the other in Invercargill.
The pigs are from a herd isolated on the Auckland Islands for about 200 years.
This left the pigs comparatively free of viruses which could possibly be passed on through the xenotransplantation process.
Dr Tan said if the trials proved successful as hoped, a decision to expand the piggery near Invercargill would be made in one or two years' time.
The trial is expected to begin in about two months' time. and Dr Tan said the first benefits should be known in six months to a year.
A condition of the authorisation limited participation in the trial to patients with poorly controlled diabetes, but that was not a concern to the researchers, as they felt the benefits of the treatment would be more marked in those patients than in those whose diabetes was well managed.
The regional ethics committee in Auckland formally has to accept the changes required by Mr Ryall.
The health minister's approval is the latest step in a process which began in 2006. The trial was approved by his predecessor, David Cunliffe, last October, subject to conditions, including a favourable peer review by a leading international expert.
The condition that trial participants have poorly controlled diabetes arose from that review.
In the treatment being tested in the trial, pig pancreas islet cells are coated with a seaweed gel and implanted into the abdomen of patients to manufacture insulin to help control their blood sugar levels.
Dr Tan said that in the company's ongoing trials in Russia involving seven patients, two were no longer taking insulin injections.
• History of xenotransplantation research in New Zealand. -
1996: Trial by Diatranz implanting pig pancreatic cells into six people with type 1 diabetes stopped because of concerns about the risk of porcine endogenous retrovirus infecting humans.
2001: Diatranz application for further clinical trials declined over safety concerns.
2006: Living Cell Technologies (previously Diatranz) applies for a trial, the first to be considered under the 2002 section of the Medicines Act covering xenotransplantation.
2008: Minister of Health approves trial subject to conditions.
June 2009: Minister of Health authorises trial, subject to further conditions.
