KEY POINTS:
Health Minister David Cunliffe has approved a clinical trial involving the transplantation of pig cells into humans.
Biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies Ltd (LCT) wants to transfer cells from the pancreas of pigs to produce insulin in type-1 diabetes sufferers in a process known as xenotransplantation. The trial would be conducted at Middlemore Hospital, in South Auckland.
Though the technology could produce significant benefits for individual patients, it is highly controversial given the potential for a pig virus to be transferred that could then became capable of spreading as an infection in people.
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