Not all prisoners are in jail and convicts aren’t the only people living with death sentences. Those with end stage organ failure and waiting for organ transplants celebrated another medical milestone with the transplantation of a genetically modified xeno pig/human kidney in a living person experiencing renal failure. To get a sense of how momentus this development is we need to go back in time.
Dr. Barney Clark was the first recipient of the Jarvik 7 artificial heart in 1982. This velcro and metal, air-powered contraption gave Dr. Clark a 112 day stay of execution. Artificial hearts are still seen as a bridge to transplantation rather than a permanent replacement. Organ transplantation remains the most successful approach to organ replacement, but a critical shortage of organs too often keeps patients on death row. Non-human organ transplantation has a long and disappointing history dating back to 1923 – organ rejection is the recurrent problem.
Jarvik 7, source: https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/jarvik-7-an-artificial-heart/
Recent advances in gene editing are bringing new hope to the innocent. Last week, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital successfully completed a xenotransplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney into a patient in end stage renal failure. eGenesis, the creator of the kidney has this to say about it:
The eGenesis donor kidney (EGEN-2784) used for this procedure is the company’s lead candidate for kidney transplant and carries three classes of edits: (1) knock out of three genes involved in the synthesis of glycan antigens implicated in hyperacute rejection, (2) insertion of seven human transgenes involved in the regulation of pathways that modulate rejection: inflammation, innate immunity, coagulation, and complement, and (3) inactivation of the endogenous retroviruses in the porcine genome. https://egenesisbio.com/press-releases/egenesis-announces-worlds-first-successful-transplant-of-genetically-engineered-porcine-kidney-in-a-living-patient/
eGenesis used CRISPR-Cas9 technology and made 69 genetic edits to the pig kidney, including removing harmful pig genes and adding certain human genes to enhance compatibility with humans. Without these edits the organ would have been rejected immediately!
Think about it – a 100 years of experimentation has led to this moment. The next 5 years are likely to bring more advances than the previous 100 years combined. The general equation here seems to be:
Medicine + Technology = Exponential Improvement in Treatments
CRISPR, the technology that allowed for the creation of this kidney will only improve from this point – probably by order of magnitude. The implications are more than financial – this technology is bringing something priceless – hope!
So what does this mean for us as investors? Healthcare and biotechnology remain both fascinating and exceptional. The chart below shows the relative performance of Healthcare (orange), Biotech (purple) and the Toronto Stock Market (blue).
Take another look at the orange line – notice that the Healthcare Sector peaked in early 2022, and has been consolidating for two years prior to this year’s dash towards new all-time highs? We call that a price break-out. That’s typically a bullish sign. Comparing Healthcare to Biotech (purple line) you’ll notice that Biotech has had much greater swings and not nearly as high gains – that’s why I prefer Healthcare to Biotech. Finally, note that over the past ten years the Healthcare sector has outperformed the Toronto Stock Market (blue) by a huge margin.
The Healthcare sector is like Vitamin C for your portfolio!
Glen
