WASHINGTON (AP) — The first clinical trial is getting underway to see if transplanting pig kidneys into people might really save lives.
United Therapeutics, a producer of gene-edited pig kidneys, announced Monday that the study’s initial transplant was performed successfully at NYU Langone Health.
It’s the latest step in the quest for animal-to-human transplants. A second U.S. company, eGenesis, is preparing to begin its own pig kidney clinical trial in the coming months. These are the first known clinical trials of what is called xenotransplantation in the world.
To protect the study participant’s identity, researchers aren’t releasing information about when the NYU surgery was performed or further patient information.
NYU's Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the transplant team, told The Associated Press his hospital has a list of other patients interested in joining the small trial, which will initially include six people. If all goes well, it could be expanded to up to 50 as additional transplant centers join.
The Food and Drug Administration is allowing the rigorous studies after a series of so-called “compassionate use” experiments, with mixed results. The first two gene-edited pig kidney transplants were short-lived.
Then doctors began working with patients who badly needed a kidney but weren't as sick as prior recipients. At NYU, an Alabama woman’s pig kidney lasted 130 days before she had to return to dialysis. The latest record, 271 days, was set by a New Hampshire man transplanted at Massachusetts General Hospital; he also is back on dialysis after the pig organ began declining and was removed last month. Others known to be living with a pig kidney are another Mass General patient and a woman in China.
“This thing is moving in the right direction" as doctors learn from each patient's experience, NYU's Montgomery said. He noted the ability to resume dialysis also gives a safety net.
More than 100,000 people, most needing kidneys, are on the U.S. transplant list, and thousands die waiting. As a potential alternative, scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike, less likely to be immediately attacked and destroyed by people’s immune system.
United Therapeutics' trial is testing pig kidneys with 10 gene edits, “knocking out” pig genes that trigger early rejection and excessive organ grown and adding some human genes to improve compatibility.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - Surgeons at NYU Langone Health prepare to transplant a pig's kidney into a brain-dead man in New York on July 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Warner Bros. is telling shareholders to reject a takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying that a rival bid from Netflix will be better for customers.
“We strongly believe that Netflix and Warner Bros. joining forces will offer consumers more choice and value, allow the creative community to reach even more audiences with our combined distribution, and fuel our long-term growth,” Warner Bros. said Wednesday. “We made this deal because their deep portfolio of iconic franchises, expansive library, and strong studio capabilities will complement—not duplicate—our existing business.”
Paramount went hostile with its bid last week, asking shareholders to reject the deal with Netflix favored by the board of Warner Bros.
Paramount is offering $30 per Warner share to Netflix’s $27.75.
Paramount’s bid isn’t off the table altogether. While Wednesday’s letter to shareholders means Paramount’s is not the offer favored by the board at Warner Bros., shareholders can still decide to tender their shares in favor of Paramount’s offer for the entire company — including cable stalwarts CNN and Discovery.
Unlike Paramount’s bid, the offer from Netflix does not include buying the cable operations of Warner Bros. An acquisition by Netflix, if approved by regulators and shareholders, will close only after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations.
Paramount has claimed it made six different bids that Warner leadership rejected before announcing its deal with Netflix on Dec. 5. Only after that did it take its offer directly to Warner’s shareholders.
Beyond a greenlight from shareholders, both takeover bids face tremendous regulatory scrutiny. A change in ownership at Warner would drastically reshape the entertainment and media industry — impacting movie making, consumer streaming platforms and, in Paramount’s case, the news landscape.
Critics of Netflix’s deal say that combining the massive streaming company with Warner’s HBO Max would give it overwhelming market dominance, whereas the Paramount+ streaming service is far smaller.
Bids from both Netflix and Paramount have raised alarm for what they could mean for film and TV production. While Netflix has agreed to uphold Paramount’s contractual obligations for theatrical releases, critics have pointed to its past business model and reliance on online releases. Yet Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of the “big five” legacy studios left in Hollywood today.
Paramount’s attempt to buy Warner’s cable networks and news business would also bring CBS and CNN under the same roof. In addition to further accelerating media consolidation, that could raise questions about shifts in editorial control — as seen at CBS News both leading up to and following Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of Paramount, which it completed in August.
U.S. President Donald Trump has already been vocal about his future involvement in the deal, indicating that politics will play a role in regulatory approval.
Trump previously said that Netflix’s deal “could be a problem” because of the potential for an outsized control of the market. The Republican president also has a close relationship with Oracle’s billionaire founder Larry Ellison — the father of Paramount’s CEO, whose family trust is also heavily backing the company’s bid to buy Warner.
Ted Sarandos poses for the World Premiere of the Netflix Series "Emily in Paris" season 5, in Paris, France, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - Skydance Media CEO David Ellison attends the premiere of "Fountain of Youth" at the American Museum of Natural History, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
