A new clinical trial will begin in France under the direction of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP). This will involve recovering plasma from cured patients and transferring it to sick patients. Researchers want to understand if antibodies in plasma could help patients in serious condition.
Plasma from cured Covid-19 patients contains antibodies that act against the virus . As explained in a press release published on April 5, 2020, a new clinical trial will begin in France, under the direction of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) in collaboration with Inserm and the French Establishment of Blood (EFS). This trial, called Coviplasm, will begin on April 7, 2020 in three regions, namely Île-de-France, Grand Est, and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Thus, approximately 200 cured patients will be asked to donate 600 ml of plasma (by plasmapheresis). The goal? Create 600 units of 200ml plasma . Only one condition for donors:to be cured for at least 14 days. The first phase of the trial will involve 60 patients. These will receive two units of plasma on day 6 of the onset of Covid-19 symptoms.
If no side effects, two more units per patient will in turn be administered, one day after the first transfusion. In total, each patient will receive four units of plasma. Two to three weeks after the start of the trial, the researchers will make an initial assessment.
The Coviplasm trial is part of a larger AP-HP study called CORIMUNO-19. It is a question of allowing a rapid and simultaneous realization of randomized controlled trials of drugs. However, it is about immuno-modulating drugs to be administered to patients with Covid-19.
As for the French Blood Establishment (EFS), it will soon be working with the Pasteur Institute but also the UMR IRD UVE 190 (unit of viruses emerging). The goal? Conduct seroprevalence studies to monitor herd immunity against Covid-19 . In a representative sample of blood donors coming to donate in a specific period, researchers want to find antibodies and get a picture of the spread of the virus in our country.
In mid-February 2020 in China, health authorities had already asked people cured of the coronavirus to donate their blood in order to extract the plasma. The goal was already to treat the sick still in serious condition.
