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The second person to receive a pig heart transplant has died close to six weeks after the procedure was carried out at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
United Therapeutics (NASDAQ:UTHR), through its xenotransplantation unit Revivicor, provided the genetically-modified pig heart. Eledon Pharmaceuticals’ (NASDAQ:ELDN) investigational anti-CD40 antibody tegoprubart was used to prevent the body from rejecting the organ.
Lawrence Faucette, 58, was first admitted to UMMC on Sept. 14 with end-stage heart failure, and underwent the experimental transplant six days later as he was ineligible for a traditional human heart transplant.
After the surgery, there was no sign of rejection during the first month of recovery, and Faucette had been engaged in physical therapy. The genetically-modified pig heart started showing signs of rejection “in recent days,” the hospital said.
David Bennett – the first patient to receive a pig heart transplant – had died last year, two months after the landmark surgery.