Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt is confident pigs being bred in his city will prove valuable for treating diabetes via xenotransplantation, but he is less confident about the New Zealand bureaucracy's ability to make a decision on the matter.
Mr Shadbolt, whose Mayoral Contingency Fund once controversially provided funds to feed some of the pigs now in the breeding programme, is among those impatient about the delay in getting a final decision on the research.
In the proposed treatment, islet cells from a pig pancreas are coated with a seaweed gel and implanted into the abdomen of patients with type 1 diabetes to manufacture insulin to help control their blood sugar levels.
These cells cannot be detected by the person's immune system, so they avoid rejection.
Former minister of health David Cunliffe approved the clinical trial last October, subject to conditions, including a favourable peer review by a leading international expert, due by December 5, 2008.
Health Minister Tony Ryall's office advised last week he was waiting for advice from the Ministry of Health on the matter.
He had asked the matter be prioritised and was hoping to announce a result at the end of this month.
Living Cell Technologies (LCT) chief executive Paul Tan said the biotech company had been extraordinarily patient but was getting a little impatient over the process.
The company's application, made in 2006, is the first to be considered under the 2002 section of the Medicines Act, which covers xenotransplantation trials.
Mr Tan believed it had addressed all issues.
He was hoping Mr Ryall would deliver a clear decision with "no more ifs and buts".
The clinical trial would transplant pig cells into eight people with type 1 diabetes.
The trial is what is known as a phase one trial, focusing primarily on safety.
The pigs are from a herd which has been isolated on the Auckland Islands for about 200 years.
The isolation has resulted in pigs comparatively free from viruses which could possibly be passed on through the xenotransplantation process.
The trial pigs are being held in Kumeu, north of Auckland, with another herd in Invercargill.
Mr Shadbolt, who is an honorary trustee of the Southland Heirloom Breeds Charitable Trust which began the breeding programme in Southland, said there were about 200 pigs on a council reserve, but a new piggery in Awarua with backing from LCT would accommodate about 20,000 pigs.
He saw the venture as an opportunity for the South to become involved in a huge multimillion-dollar industry.
He was hopeful the trial would be able to go ahead and that the eventual result would be a biotech industry based in New Zealand.
The alternative would be to send tissue from the pigs overseas for development, but that would be a " huge pity".
Mr Tan agreed.
In the existing economic climate it was important to retain science graduates in the country and have them working on projects with the potential to create jobs.
"This is no time to hibernate. It is time to innovate and earn ourselves out of this hole," he said.
