Japan will breed cloned pigs for human organ transplants
Baku, October 23, AZERTAC
The Japanese startup PorMedTec plans to open a farm by 2027 to raise cloned pigs for organ transplantation. PorMedTec, together with the U.S. biotech company eGenesis, will create cloned animals using cells from ordinary pigs, according to Nikkei Asia.
The biological material will first be genetically modified to reduce the likelihood of organ rejection by the recipient’s immune system.
The farm, located in Osaka, will raise about 100 pigs per year. Once the animals reach the appropriate size, they will be transported to medical centers for organ harvesting. The farm will use modern equipment, including AI-powered monitoring cameras to track body temperature and other biological indicators of the pigs.
Given the shortage of human donor organs, pig organs are suitable because they are similar in size to human organs. In February last year, Tokyo’s Meiji University, which initiated PorMedTec, announced that the startup and eGenesis had created three cloned pigs in Japan for the first time for potential organ transplantation into humans. In November, a Japanese company successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a monkey. In September 2025, eGenesis reported that a patient who previously received a kidney from a genetically modified pig lived for a record seven months without needing dialysis.
The PorMedTec project, launched by Meiji University in 2017, aims to contribute to global medicine by developing next-generation materials for regenerative medicine.
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