FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

First and foremost, Smithfield Foods is a food company that takes great pride in producing “Good food. Responsibly.®” Part of that responsibility is making sure the entire animal is utilized and waste is minimized. There are many parts of the animal that are not typically eaten. However, there are valuable uses for these parts, such as supplying them to the medical community.

There are striking similarities between hogs and humans, especially as it relates to our DNA and digestive tracts. As a result, hog byproducts have been used for years in various medical procedures. For example, mucosa from the hog’s intestine is used in the production of heparin, a blood thinner that prevents clotting during surgery.

Smithfield BioScience leverages the vertical integration and geographic prominence of Smithfield Foods operations, enabling Smithfield BioScience to provide raw materials to virtually anyone, anywhere, at any time. Vertical integration is key to product traceability, which is vital to the medical and pharmaceutical industries. On-site testing labs and in-house specialists who are trained to harvest tissues and organs precisely to customer specifications differentiate Smithfield BioScience from other raw material providers in the industry. Smithfield‘s hog production and precision genetics capabilities further set Smithfield BioScience apart.

The Smithfield BioScience team has extensive experience in extracting APIs from porcine tissues and has the ability to certify strength, quality and potency, and purity of APIs. Dedicated R&D and regulatory teams work alongside partners to support API development and assist with FDA-required approvals.

Smithfield currently supplies aortas, bladders, brains, eyes, feet, gullets, heart valves, hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, mucosa, ovaries, pancreas glands, pepsin linings, pericardium sacs, peritoneum’s, pituitary glands, small intestines, skin, tendons, thyroid glands and tracheas.

Smithfield BioScience prides itself on the ability to track information about the origin of each hog throughout the entire supply chain. From genetics to farm housing and animal care, to processing, storage and distribution – every aspect is tracked to ensure exact specifications are met.

At this stage, Smithfield BioScience will not be performing research for human testing. Smithfield BioScience will serve as a raw material resource and supply processed material, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and medical device components. Smithfield BioScience will also partner with organizations looking to explore technologies in this space.

Although scientists are still in the infancy stages of understanding all the uses for porcine sources in improving human health, they are exploring a variety of organ and skin transplant solutions to minimize human donation rejections and alleviate organ shortages that are seen worldwide. In addition, scientists are exploring how various porcine organs can be leveraged in nutraceuticals.

Smithfield BioScience is currently looking at a variety of technologies that utilize porcine organs. Today, Smithfield BioScience can sell pancreases and thyroid glands for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical uses. Down the road, Smithfield BioScience will be exploring the use of all major organs and skin.

Organizations tend to focus heavily on areas and activities that are in their direct space and control. For example, Smithfield Foods has long maintained a focus on quality and will continue to do so. The same is true of research organizations. By working together, we can better understand each other’s needs and capabilities, thereby moving forward more effectively.

The goal of Smithfield’s partnership with the DOD is to save lives. Using technologies that will be developed with partners in the consortium, Smithfield BioScience will be able to provide a medical solution for a variety of traumatic events. Smithfield is passionate about the military community and expects that the resulting technologies will benefit both active and retired military personnel, as well as the civilian community.

There are striking similarities between hogs and humans, especially as it relates to our DNA and digestive tracts. As a result, hog byproducts have been used for years in various medical procedures. For example, mucosa from the hog’s intestine is used in the production of heparin, a blood thinner that prevents clotting during surgery.