In a final vote of no confidence in its subsidiary Imutran (Cambridge, UK), Novartis has announced plans to merge its xenotransplantation research with that of Boston, MA-based BioTransplant; Imutran will cease operations on 31 December. Imutran has developed a line of GM pigs with 'humanized' organs that express a human complement inhibitor. However, Novartis was unhappy with Imutran's 39-day average survival time of pig-to-monkey heart transplants. Meanwhile, BioTransplant has bred a herd of miniature swine that are relatively free of transmissible PERV. The company has also developed “tolerance induction”—a technique of teaching the body to recognize foreign antigens as its own—and has submitted a patent claim for the creation of hybrid, human-pig pluripotent stem cells for use in therapeutic cloning. Thus, Novartis is hoping that BioTransplant will take xenotransplantation to heights not reached by Imutran, namely clinical trials. Novartis will own two thirds of the new venture and will pump in $30 million over 3 years.