COVID-19 has been spreading across the globe since December 2019 and is now a pandemic. With no vaccine or approved drugs for treatment, medical researchers are considering the use of convalescent plasma to treat seriously ill patients. Convalescent plasma is collected from individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and may contain high antibody titers to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Two reports from China published this week suggest that treating patients with convalescent plasma may be beneficial. In a case study published in JAMA, 5 critically ill patients (age range 36-65 years) with acute respiratory distress treated with convalescent plasma had significantly improved outcomes approximately one week after transfusion. In addition, a pilot study in China used convalescent plasma to treat 10 patients (age range 34-78 years) with similar improvement of outcomes. It is important to note that all of these patients were also receiving antiviral treatments along with other drugs, and the studies were not well controlled. However, no adverse events were observed to be related to transfusion with convalescent plasma. In recognition of these data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use of convalescent plasma if Emergency Investigational New Drug requests are submitted for patients with severe or life-threatening COVID-19. The AABB has stressed that it is important to further study the efficacy of convalescent plasma and is also assisting and coordinating efforts to collect convalescent plasma.
- JD Roback and J Guarner. Convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19. Possibilities and challenges. JAMA 2020
- Shen C, Wang Z, Zhao F, Yang Y, et al. Treatment of 5 critically ill patients with COVID-19 with convalescent plasma. JAMA 2020
- A Casadevall and L Pirofski. The convalescent sera option for containing COVID-19. J Clin Invest
- Duan K, Liu B, Li C, Zhang H, et al. The feasibility of convalescent plasma therapy in severe COVID-19 patients: a pilot study. MedRxIV 2020
- FDA Investigational new drug IND or device exemption process. Investigation COVID-19 convalescent plasma-emergency INDs. March 26, 2020
