Plasma trial to boost immunity for health workers

An Australian trial could provide temporary immunity from COVID-19 for frontline healthcare workers.

Aegros co-founders John Manusu and Hari Nair in Macquarie Park, Sydney. Picture: Dylan Coker

A new promising clinical trial could provide temporary immunity from COVID-19 for frontline healthcare workers, and act as a stopgap for nurses, doctors and aged-care facility workers until a vaccine is found.

Sydney-based company Aegros has built a machine that uses plasma fractionation — the process of separating components of blood plasma — to give temporary passive immunity that the biotech firm says lasts for between three and six months.

It comes after COVID-19 ravaged Victorian healthcare workers, infecting more than 3000 and accounting for about 20 per cent of new cases in the state between July and last month.

Aegros on Tuesday kicked off a clinical trial, run by Sydney‘s Royal North Shore hospital, with the hope that treatment can begin early next year. It’s opened a 4500 sq m TGA-approved facility at the hospital specifically for the trials.

“We are very confident about this,” Aegros co-founder Dr Hari Nair told The Australian. “It‘s very important that we protect frontline workers because without them, you do not have the resources to treat patients who get infected with COVID.

“Certain hospitals in Melbourne had to try and get doctors and nurses coming in from overseas, including from places like New Zealand.

“There will be a COVID-20 and a COVID-21, and you want to be in a situation where you can react to that almost immediately using technology like ours, quickly and effectively. ”

According to Dr Nair, people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies to the virus, and Aegros takes antibodies from those recovering patients to supply frontline workers with passive immunity from the coronavirus.

The company is self-funded to date but is seeking additional investment and has applied for state government grants.

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma, a former adviser to Aegros’s board, said the hyperimmune treatment has the potential to provide greater protection for frontline health workers and speed up the resumption of normal economic and social life.

“Aegros is a proudly Australian company and the opening of their facility today shows that cutting-edge Australian innovation and research, with the potential to save lives, should always have a welcome home in Australia. I wish Aegros all the best with their new facility and their commencement of clinical trials.”

Liberal MP John Alexander described Bennelong as Australia‘s “capital of innovation”.

“We’re the home of Wi-Fi, Granny Smith apples and now the vital medical companies of Macquarie Park, so we’re delighted to welcome Aegros and their novel approach to treatment in this ongoing pandemic,” he said.

“I look forward to seeing this new method in action and share the hope alongside all Australians that this will be another useful tool in our arsenal which will help us get back to normal shortly.”