LONDON (Reuters) – An international trial testing blood plasma recovery on COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe disease has stopped enrolling seriously ill COVID-19 patients in need of intensive care after no benefit found, investigators said Monday.
The decision by the REMAP-CAP trial leaders came after an initial analysis of more than 900 participants in intensive care at seriously ill trials showed that treatment with the product – an antibody-rich plasma taken from people recovering from the pandemic – does not improve outcomes.
“There was no evidence of harm associated with the administration of recovery plasma” (s) COVID-19 patients in hospital who are moderately ill but not in intensive care continue to be recruited, scientists in the statement said.
‘It is biologically plausible that patients who do not produce antibodies during the recovery of plasma treatment, and that the patients with an excess of virus can benefit more than others. Our additional analyzes will investigate this, ‘said Manu Shankar-Hari, a clinician and professor of critical care medicine at the British Hospital Guy’s and St Thomas’s, who is leading the trial.
He added that the initial analysis did not assess the effect of plasma on patients with less serious illnesses in the hospital. This ‘remains a very important question’ and will be investigated in the ongoing trial, he said.
The underlying hypothesis for the use of recovery plasma as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients is that the antibodies present in it can neutralize the virus and thus repeat and stop tissue damage.
However, this initial analysis, which led to the disruption of REMAP-CAP in critically ill patients, showed that there was a very low probability – 2.2% – that it would reduce mortality rates or reduce the number of days patients needed.
It is not yet known why recovery plasma does not appear to improve the outcome in severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. However, it may be because the lung damage is too advanced for plasma repair to make a difference, ”said Alexis Turgeon, a critical care physician and professor at Laval University in Canada who is also working on the trial.
REMAP-CAP is an international clinical trial investigating potential treatments for COVID-19. It has already recruited 4,100 COVID-19 patients at more than 290 clinical sites in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
Separate findings from REMAP-CAP last week showed that treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with Roche’s Actemra or Sanofi’s Kevzara arthritis medication significantly improved survival rates and reduced the number of patients in need of intensive care.
The trial also looks at the possible effects of a range of other existing therapies, including anticoagulants, antiplatelet drugs, antibiotics, statins and vitamin C.
Reporting by Kate Kelland; Edited by Nick Macfie