David-Alexandre Gros, MD, on the Work to Bring Porcine Kidney Transplant to the Clinic
The chief executive officer of Eledon Pharmaceuticals also discussed other future plans for the company.
This is the third part of an interview with David-Alexandre Gros, MD. For the first part, click here. For the second part, click here.
“Xenotransplantation is very different from allotransplantation. It's much harder to control, as you can imagine, an organ that came from a different species. As such, there continues to be work, which is what we're doing as a function and as a part of the trials in order to figure out what is going to be the best regimen that can be given.”
In February 2025, EGenesis announced that it had successfully performed the second in-human transplant of EGEN-2784, a porcine kidney with genetic modifications intended to prevent rejection in human patients, along with the use of an immunosuppression regimen that included Eledon Pharmaceuticals’ tegoprubart, an investigational monoclonal antibody directed at the costimulatory CD40L pathway. The procedure was part of an FDA-authorized Expanded Access pathway for patients with end-stage kidney disease, but EGenesis and Eledon intend to bring this treatment to clinical trials, and eventually to commercialization.
In an interview with CGTLive®, David-Alexandre C. Gros, MD, Eledon’s chief executive officer, spoke about the next steps for EGEN-2784 and tegoprubart, along with broader future plans for Eledon. He stated that the field is still in its early-middle innings. The next steps involve conducting full clinical trials, which the FDA is beginning to facilitate the pathway to, as well as optimizing the immunotherapy regimen. He noted that xenotransplantation is more complex than allotransplantation due to the species differences and that additionally, scaling up manufacturing—specifically breeding organs for transplantation—will be crucial to meet growing demand.
Gros emphasized Eledon’sglobal collaborations in places such as Europe and China that aim to advance multiple types of xenotransplants. He also highlighted broader company efforts, including ongoing research in human-to-human transplantation and islet cell transplantation for type 1 diabetes. Gros concluded by discussing and expressing enthusiasm for upcoming data readouts that are expected to be shared with the clinical community later this year.
