Plasma Therapy Doesn’t Reduce COVID-19 Death Risk, Says ICMR, Serum Institute Of India Gets Notice From DCGI After Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Paused

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in a study, said plasma therapy for COVID-19 neither reduces the death risk nor does it slow down the progression of the disease from mild to severe stage. In plasma therapy, antibodies from the blood of a person who has recovered from COVID-19 are taken & transfused into a coronavirus infected patient to boost the immune system to fight the infection.

A trial by the ICMR was conducted on 464 moderately-ill patients with breathing difficulties & oxygen saturation level of less than 93 per cent. They were divided into two groups, 235 were given plasma while 229 received only standard care. Both intervention and control groups were compared after 28 days.

A total of 34 patients or 13.6 per cent of those who received plasma therapy could not recover and died, the top medical body said, while 31 patients or 14.6 per cent of those who did not receive plasma died. The study said 17 patients in each group progressed to have severe disease.

Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Oxford University's Covishield vaccine and will hold the phase 3 clinical trials in India from next week, has been issued a showcause notice by the country's drug controller DCGI. AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharma giant that's developing the vaccine jointly with Oxford University, had said the volunteer had suffered "an unexplained illness" and such pauses in drug trials are "routine".