“From the outside, I can see why it’d look like this happened out of nowhere,” said Montgomery. “But we’ve been laying the groundwork for these innovations for years.”

The pig organs used in both surgeries came from Revivicor, a Virginia-based biotechnology firm that’s been working to produce genetically modified pigs since 2003. (They’re a spin-off from another company, PPL Therapeutics, that cloned Dolly the sheep in the ‘90s.)

And they’re far from alone. The biotech eGenesis, another startup looking to harvest pig organs for transplants, raised $100 million in 2019 to clinically test their xenotransplant organs. (The company’s staff wears t-shirts bearing the company slogan “This pig might save your bacon.”)

Even Smithfield Foods, which packages and sells pork products like bacon, hot dogs, and sausages, opened a bioscience branch in 2017 — with an $80 million grant from the US Department of Defense — to start raising hogs specifically for organ transplants.

“It’s become a bit of a race to see who can get there first,” says Montgomery.