Wellington, June 24 NZPA - Company Living Cell Technologies is hoping to start trials in which pig tissue is implanted in diabetes patients within two months at Middlemore Hospital.

Living Cell today said Health Minister Tony Ryall had authorised the clinical trial, confirming conditions announced last week.

The company was given approval by the previous government last October to implant cells from the pancreas of piglets in the abdomen of type-1 (juvenile onset) diabetes patients to help manufacture insulin to control their blood sugar levels.

The new decision limited participation in the trial to patients with poorly controlled, or brittle, diabetes.

Living Cell said it and the Middlemore clinical team conducting the trial had asked the regional ethics committee to formally accept the changes required by the minister.

Chief executive Paul Tan said Living Cell was pleased the conditions had been finalised and it looked forward to starting the trial within the next two months, with the acceptance of the changes by the ethics committee.

Living Cell founder and medical director Bob Elliott said that with two diabetes patients not needing insulin following implants with encapsulated pig islet cells in the company's first study in Russia, further benefit was expected in more patients as higher doses were to be used in the New Zealand trial.

In the trial in this country, four patients were to receive double the initial dose used in Russia followed by four patients receiving triple the dose, Living Cell said.

Middlemore Hospital clinical director and diabetes physician John Baker, who will be conducting the trial, said there were many patients with poorly controlled diabetes who would qualify for the trial.

Living Cell owns a biocertified pig herd that it uses as a source of cells for treating diabetes and neurological disorders.

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