In the race to find a treatment for COVID-19, the use of antibody-rich plasma from those who have recovered from the novel coronavirus to treat patients who are suffering from the illness has emerged as a hopeful potential therapy.
NBC News has spotlighted the potential of using this “convalescent” plasma to fight COVID-19 and the efforts of the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, a collaboration of plasma-industry leaders, including CSL Behring, that was launched this month to develop a plasma-derived therapy that could potentially treat the disease. The medicine would be created by taking antibodies from COVID-19 survivors and purifying them into a potent serum to treat those dealing with serious complications from the virus.
“We’ve done this before with other therapies,” said Bill Mezzanotte, CSL Behring’s Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, in an “NBC Nightly News” interview with reporter Anne Thompson. “It’s something that we do very well and have done for a very long time – all the companies.”
See the full report from NBC below.
COVID-19 survivors are urged to visit CoVIg-19PlasmaAlliance.org to learn how and where to donate their plasma to the Alliance’s efforts and help scientists from around the world fight the virus. The website was launched with the support of Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and includes a feature Microsoft is calling a “plasmabot,” a chatbot tool that allows COVID-19 survivors to quickly find the closest plasma collection center where they can make a donation.
CNBC profiled the unique feature and has more details about Microsoft’s support of the Alliance.
