Several Toledo-area hospitals are taking part in a national program for convalescent plasma as a treatment protocol for the coronavirus, the hospital system announced Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration’s national expanded access program is designed to allow patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses to have access to certain drugs before the FDA has approved them. Recently, the FDA included convalescent plasma for the coronavirus in the program.
“This is just an alternate and hopefully an additional way to care for those who are very sick with this disease,” said Dr. Kevin Casey, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health Toledo.
Convalescent plasma is collected from individuals who have recovered from the virus and is administered to patients with coronavirus who are at high risk of progression to a severe or life-threatening stage of the disease, according to Mercy officials. Convalescent plasma has been safely collected and used at various times over the past century to treat polio, measles, hepatitis B, influenza, Ebola, and other pathogens.
Dr. Casey said this process has also been used to treat SARS and MERS, which are both different types of coronavirus, so he’s optimistic that the current coronavirus can be treated in the same way.
“[The treatment] has been around for a century,” he said.
ProMedica is also set to begin enrolling patients in the plasma antibody treatment regimen for severe coronavirus, said Tausha Moore, spokesman for ProMedica.
St. Luke’s Hospital is also participating in the convalescent plasma expanded access program, according to a hospital spokesman.
Because it hasn’t yet been approved as treatment by the FDA for the current coronavirus, it is regulated as an investigational product, according to the FDA’s website.
The FDA designated the Mayo Clinic as the lead institution for the program, Mercy officials said, and because of the need for an enhanced response to the pandemic, the expanded access to the program includes registered health care providers across the country.
Dr. Casey said Mercy Health has a working relationship with the Mayo Clinic and when the opportunity came to participate in the program, Mercy Health submitted an application.
People can become qualified donors after they have recovered from the coronavirus and are symptom-free for 28 days or longer. They can donate blood through their local American Red Cross Blood Donation Center or at other participating blood donation centers found on Bon Secours’/Mercy Health’s website.
Donated blood is tested for safety, Mercy officials said, and then the blood cells are separated until the plasma containing antibodies is all that remains. A single plasma donation has the potential to help up to four patients with coronavirus.
For more information, and to find a list of local blood donation centers participating in the expanded access investigative convalescent plasma program, visit: mercy.com or call 888-700-9011.
First Published April 21, 2020, 9:21 p.m.
