Revivicor’s $100 million pig-organ facility moves forward

By early next year, Blacksburg-based Revivicor will be raising genetically modified pigs in Montgomery County, with plans to harvest their hearts and kidneys for xenotransplantation into human patients.

Founded in 2003 as a spinoff company of PPL Therapeutics (the company that cloned Dolly the sheep seven years earlier), Revivicor provided the genetically modified pig heart that was successfully transplanted by University of Maryland School of Medicine surgeons into a 57-year-old terminal heart patient in January 2022. The man lived for about two months without organ rejection signs, though his death is still being studied. (While a pig virus was detected in the heart, no related infection was observed in the patient, who experienced other complications.)

Now, Revivicor is building a $100 million, 69,000-square-foot designated pathogen-free facility at Montgomery’s Falling Branch Corporate Park, says Dewey Steadman, head of investor relations for Revivicor’s parent company, Silver Spring, Maryland-based United Therapeutics. Revivicor will raise up to 200 genetically modified pigs indoors at the site, which United Therapeutics purchased for $1.06 million in June 2022. 

The company’s clinical research focuses on much-needed replacements for human hearts, kidneys and the thymus. As of August, more than 103,500 patients were on the national transplant waiting list, with 17 people dying each day while waiting for transplants, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

With expected approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Revivicor will produce transplant organs for the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and New York University.

During the first year at the Falling Branch facility, Revivicor expects to hire 20 permanent employees, paying a minimum annual salary of $75,000. Locals expect it will have an economic impact far beyond job creation, however. 

“The breakthroughs they are having and the publicity they are getting are putting our region on the map. It’s motivating companies to want to be here,” says Brett Malone, president of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, where Revivicor started its research more than two decades ago. “Their expansion has provided a lot of motivation and encouraged people to work on cutting-edge research.” 

Brian Hamilton, Montgomery County’s director of economic development, believes that Revivicor’s investment in Falling Branch will attract more research activities to Montgomery and Virginia Tech. While it hasn’t prompted other companies to make inquires yet, “once Revivicor is delivering organs, I think it will be a lot more noticeable.”