March 21 (Reuters) - A 62-year-man with end-stage renal

disease has become the first human to receive a new kidney from

a genetically modified pig, doctors from Massachusetts General

Hospital in Boston announced on Thursday.

The four-hour surgery, performed on March 16, "marks a major

milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs

to patients," the hospital said in a statement.

The patient, Richard Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is

recovering well and expected to be discharged soon, the hospital

said.

Slayman had received a transplant of a human kidney at the

same hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis, but the

organ failed after five years and he had resumed dialysis

treatments.

The kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge,

Massachusetts from a pig that had been genetically edited to

remove genes that could be harmful to a human recipient and add

certain human genes to improve compatibility. In addition, the

company inactivated certain viruses inherent to pigs that have

the potential to infect humans.

Kidneys from similarly edited pigs raised by eGenesis had

successfully been transplanted into monkeys that were kept alive

for an average of 176 days, and in one case for more than two

years, researchers reported in October in the journal Nature.

Drugs used to help prevent rejection of the pig organ by the

patient's immune system included an experimental antibody

therapy called tegoprubart, developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals ( ELDN )

.

The pig kidney procedure moves the field of

xenotransplantation - the transplanting of organs or tissues

from one species to another - closer to becoming a potential

solution to the worldwide organ shortage.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than

100,000 people in the U.S. await an organ for transplant, with

kidneys in the greatest demand.