To date, 10 plasma companies globally have joined the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, founded to accelerate development of a plasma-derived hyperimmune globulin therapy against COVID-19. The founding companies include Biotest, BPL, CSL Behring, LFB, Octapharma and Takeda, but has since added ADMA Biologics, BioPharma Plasma, GC Pharma and Sanquin.
The Alliance is also collaborating with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the hyperimmune therapy in adults with COVID-19. The trial is expected to launch this summer.
The first step of the Alliance is to collect plasma at licensed plasma collection centers across the U.S. The plasma is from healthy people who have recovered from COVID-19, called convalescent plasma. This plasma has antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be used to create an experimental treatment. “Ig” in CoVIg-19 stands for immune globulin. The immune globulin can be used to concentrate the antibodies against the virus into an investigational therapy.
Microsoft and Uber Health are also assisting the alliance. Microsoft is offering technology support, both the Alliance website and the Plasmabot for donor recruitment...
Full text at GMPnews.Net