Israeli, Italian firms push ahead with plasma-based COVID-19 treatment
The two companies hope to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as with other regulatory bodies across the world.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPlasma bags are pictured at the Interregional Transfusion CRS in Bern(photo credit: DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS)
Two leading biopharma firms from Israel and Italy are continuing their work on developing and eventually distributing a coronavirus treatment based on blood plasma, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.The companies, which are Israel-based Kamada and Italy-based Kedrion Biopharma, are both known for plasma-derived therapeutics, and have already agreed to work together on their COVID-19 treatment. Kamada is responsible for the actual product development, as well as manufacturing and submitting it to regulatory bodies, and Kedrion is responsible for collecting plasma – which will come from recovered COVID-19 patients – and for eventual product distribution.The two companies hope to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as with other regulatory bodies across the world. Both companies have also formed partnerships with other institutions to research and test their new therapies. In July, Kedrion partnered with Columbia University Irving Medical Center to test a new immunoglobulin (IgG) therapy for COVID-19 patients. The center's clinical laboratories medical director Dr. Steven Spitalnik said at the time that if it receives FDA approval, he hopes it can be administered to frontline medical workers as a preventative measure.Kamada is currently partnering with Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem, where it is testing its IgG treatment under the auspices of the Health Ministry.The treatment works as a passive vaccine, which is when you are given antibodies formed by another patient who got the disease and developed them. This is in contrast to an active vaccine, when you are injected with a dead or weakened version of a virus that tricks your immune system into thinking that you have had the disease, and your immune system creates antibodies to protect you.The FDA gave an "emergency use authorization" for coronavirus treatments that use blood plasma from recovered patients. Israel's Health Ministry has yet to do so, but Hadassah chief Zeev Rotstein is urging them to follow in the FDA's footsteps.“From the first moment [that COVID-19 struck Israel] we realized plasma was an important tool for treating sick patients,” Rotstein told The Jerusalem Post.“The Health Ministry was reluctant even to see us collect the plasma. But at the end, the fruits are very delicious.”
