$CERS
Convalescent Plasma Could Help in the Fight Against COVID-19
Simon Barnett
Twitter @sbarnettARK
Clinicians and researchers are exploring convalescent plasma as a therapy for COVID-19 patients. Convalescent plasma therapy transfuses antibody-rich blood from a COVID-19 patient who has recovered into a patient still struggling with the disease. If successful, the donor’s antibodies will boost the recipient’s immune response to COVID-19, alleviating symptoms and speeding the road to recovery. ARK believes that convalescent plasma therapy is promising but will require clinical validation and quality control before being approved as a treatment.
In emergencies, clinicians have used convalescent plasma to treat previous viral outbreaks like SARS, albeit in the absence of large, randomized clinical trials (RCTs). In our view, COVID-19 is an opportunity to conduct large RCTs, quantifying the antibody load in donated plasma and arming clinicians with the information to give the right recipient the right dose at the right time.
Because COVID-19 patients are immune-compromised, clinicians need to inactivate pathogens in convalescent plasma to prevent infections. This week, Cerus (CERS) announced the formation of a research group developing a convalescent plasma therapy protocol, including its INTERCEPT platform for pathogen inactivation.
With pathogen inactivation and the optimal antibody dose, ARK believes that convalescent plasma therapy could be a powerful treatment in the fight against COVID-19.
