The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod to the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) proposal for the clinical trial of plasma therapy to treat critically-ill Covid-19 patients.
After developing the proposal for the trial, the ICMR had sought DCGI permission and submitted a list of institutes, which have shown an interest in the trial.
The Plasma therapy treatment involves blood transfusion from a patient who has recovered from Covid-19. Hospitals in New Delhi and Mumbai have already used this therapy to treat severely ill patients, which has aided their recovery.
Now with the DCGI giving green signal to its proposal, the ICMR will officially start clinical trials. If shown to be effective, the therapy can be a breather for severely ill patients until a vaccine hits the market.
Plasma Therapy is an age-old therapy that is used to treat infections, especially viral infections. In the therapy, the antibodies of the person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into the critically-ill person to help boost his/ her immune system.
Generally, when a person gets infected, it takes about 5-7 days for the anti-bodies to kick in and help the person fight the virus.
However, in case of critically ill patients, by that time, they may get sicker.
However, the plasma therapy will not be used for all patients. It will be used to treat only the critically-ill patients, who are on ventilator support. It will not be used for mild or asymptomatic cases. Several countries have conducted limited trials using plasma therapy and have found it to be successful. Due to the absence of any potential drug or vaccine, many countries including the US and China have started clinical trials to test plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients.
A group of Chinese researchers had recently published a study, in which they reported that plasma therapy could be a promising rescue option for severely ill COVID-19 patients.
According to researchers, plasma therapy was used to treat 10 severely critical adult patients in Wuhan in China.
The result showed that infusion of the plasma was well-tolerated and it could significantly increase or maintain the neutralizing antibodies at a high level, resulting in patients showing improvement in their symptoms.