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>>> BIOTECHNOLOGY ------------------------------- 10. Ontario Government to Put Millions Into Pigs-To-People Transplants November 15, 1999 / London [Ontario] Free Press / KELLEY TEAHEN / Free Press Reporter / -- Hopes for transplanting pig organs into humans will, according to this story, get an "essential" boost today from the Ontario government, says a member of London's transplant research team. Science and Technology Minister Jim Wilson is expected to announce an allocation worth millions of dollars from Ontario's Research and Development Challenge Fund. It will match money already committed to the project by several medical industries and London's Robarts Research Institute. Robert Zhong, director of experimental surgery in the multi-organ transplant program at London Health Sciences Centre and one of 12 scientists on the London Transplant Research Team was quoted as saying, "Canada is one of the top five leading countries in the field." The others are Australia, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S. Companies such as Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., Transplantation Technologies Inc., Viron Therapeutics Inc and ASAHI Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. of Japan have invested in the project because pig-to-people transplants are "a very big potential market" for them, Zhong said. Commercial interests include raising pigs suitable for transplant and, after more transplant surgeries are possible, greater demand for anti-rejection drugs and surgical supplies. Source: AnimalNet