Of all the places in the world where you thought a cure for Parkinson’s disease might be found, the remote sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands might not have been your first choice but that’s exactly where biotech company Living Cell Technologies (ASX: LCT) will obtain tissue for their clinical trials. 

Specifically, Living Cell Technologies has secured a critical service agreement with NZeno to breed and maintain pigs that will provide tissue for the third clinical trial of NTCELL®, LCT’s treatment targeting Parkinson’s disease. 

The tissue to be sourced from NZeno is so specific that it must be derived from designated pathogen-free (DPF) pigs found on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. These are the same pigs that tissue was sourced from for LCT’s first and second clinical trials in 2012 and 2015 respectively. 

“Securing access to NZeno’s DPF herd was a critical milestone as LCT progresses the next clinical trial of NTCELL® in Parkinson’s disease,” said LCT Executive Chairman, Professor Beruch Tuch.

“The transplantation of living cells from pigs into humans is quite different from implanting pig organs, such as a heart, as recently reported in the media,” 

“The risk to the recipients with encapsulated cells is much lower, and our patients will not need to take anti-rejection drugs. Moreover, the pigs being used in our trial are natural animals and are not being genetically manipulated.” 

Once the choroid plexus tissue is obtained from the pigs, samples will be sent to a laboratory in Sydney where digestion of the tissue will take place to form single cell clusters for encapsulation. This will then enable LCT to manufacture NTCELL® under conditions suitable for the clinical trials. 

These trials are likely to be the first time xenotransplantation will be carried out in Australia with the earlier first and second trials having been conducted in New Zealand. In order to progress these trials in Australia, they will require the regulatory approval of the Therapeutic Goods Administration but should that be obtained, LCT anticipates trial participants to receive treatment by 2024. 

Given the highly specific biology of the tissue to be sourced from the Auckland Island pigs, the porcine choroid plexus tissue will not come cheap. 

Under the terms of their agreement, LCT will pay an annual fee of NZ $250,000 per annum to NZeno for the ongoing maintenance of the dedicated pig facility and herd. A milestone payment of NZ $500,000 is then payable subject to TGA approval to commence the trials and a further NZ $500,000 upon TGA approval for commercialisation. 

Should all these milestones be met and NTCELL® reaches commercialisation using NZeno’s porcine tissue, annual royalty payments up to NZ $2,500,000 would be payable. 

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement. Globally, more than 10 million people live with the degenerative disease which includes 1 in every 308 Australians.