Coronavirus: Recovered patients key to trials

Plasma extracted from those who have recovered from COVID-19 will be injected into those with active infections as part of a new treatment.

A recovered German COVID-19 patient donates blood plasma for research last month. Picture: Getty Images

Plasma extracted from the blood of hundreds of people who have recovered from the deadly coronavirus will be injected into those with active infections as part of the development of a treatment that would provide hyper-immunity to COVID-19.

Global biopharmaceutical com­pany CSL Behring is partnering with the Australian Red Cross to develop the groundbreaking treatment that will be administered to those in hospital with COVID-19 in an effort to prevent the onset of severe disease.

Red Cross Lifeblood has 100 regular plasma donors who have recovered from COVID-19 willing to take part in the treatment trial, and is asking hundreds more to come forward to donate their ­plasma to the research effort.

As part of clinical trials, plasma containing antibodies of people recover­ed from COVID-19 will be directly transfused into COVID-19 sufferers, and CSL will also work on an investigational product, to be known as COVID-19 Immunoglobulin, which will be a concentrated form of the antibodies to be injected into patients.

Plasma will begin to be collect­ed from recovered COVID-19 ­patients by the Red Cross from next Monday, after which clinical trials will begin. CSL hopes it will have a plasma product ready for the market by the end of the year.

“This treatment is a concentrated product of COVID-19 antibodies,” said CSL’s chief medical officer Charmaine Gittleson.

“The antibodies neutralise the virus and can be given to people who are infected and present with respiratory symptoms of shortness of breath and air hunger.

“If you’re able to boost their immun­e system with a hyper­immunoglobulin, the hope is that the COVID-19-specific antibodies will bind to the virus, neutralise the virus, and thus assist that patient recovering and prevent the need for ventilation.”

The plasma treatment would initially be given to people in hospital suffering serious illness from COVID-19, but CSL said the treatment could also be given to healthcare workers as a preventive remedy if they had been exposed to high amounts of the virus during­the course of their work.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the clinical trials into the hyperimmune treatment prod­uct would be world-leading. He said the government wanted to see about 800 of the almost 6000 people who had recovered from COVID-19 in Australia come forwar­d to donate their plasma.

“Every one of those cases can help unlock the potential treatment of using immunoglobulin from that convalescent plasma, to protect and treat those Australians most ill, most gravely at risk of serious complications or indeed losing their lives,” Mr Hunt said.

“It’s not a guarantee but it’s promising, and it’s part of the broader research in vaccines, preventio­ns and treatments, which Australia is overseeing.”

CSL’s research will involve two phases. In the first phase, a small batch of COVID-19 immuno­globulin will be produced and used to develop tests to detect antibodies that fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The second phase will involve a larger batch of COVID-19 immuno­globulin that will be used in clinical trials in Australia’s hospitals to ­establish the safety of the product.

The trials will begin within weeks in Australian hospitals. CSL said it hoped to have a product available by the end of the year.