Does Convalescent Plasma Therapy Help In COVID-19 Recovery? NIH Study Says 'It Does Not'

Formal conclusions from the NIH-funded trial of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Outpatients (C3PO) demonstrate that COVID-19 convalescent plasma did not prevent disease progression in a high-risk group of outpatients.
The final results from the trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial enrolled 511 patients, randomized to receive either plasma or placebo within one week after the onset of symptoms, and found similarities between the two groups.
COVID-19 progression occurred in 77 patients (30%) in the convalescent plasma group and 81 patients (31.9%) in the placebo group.
Five patients in the plasma group and one patient in the placebo group died.
Earlier this year, the trial was stopped due to a lack of efficacy seen in a planned interim analysis.
“We were hoping that the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma would achieve at least a 10% reduction in disease progression in this group, but instead the reduction we observed was less than 2%,” Clifton Callaway, the contact principal investigator for the trial and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a statement. “That was surprising to us. As physicians, we wanted this to make a big difference in reducing severe illness, and it did not.”
Additional studies of COVID-19 convalescent plasma are ongoing or planned in different populations, including the Pass It On trial, NIH-funded randomized trial using convalescent plasma to treat hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 infection to see if the treatment can help them recover faster.
Other trials include one in outpatients recovering at home and one in individuals with a high risk of exposure to COVID-19 to see if COVID-19 convalescent plasma can prevent infection.
Photo by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay
See also: CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: STATES WITH MOST AND FEWEST NEW COVID-19 CASES IN JULY 2020

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Does Convalescent Plasma Therapy Help In COVID-19 Recovery? NIH Study Says 'It Does Not'

Comments

Popular Channels

Tools & Features

Partners & Contributors

About Benzinga