COVID-19 convalescent plasma: phase 2

Authors: Knudson, CM. and Jackson, JB.

Publication: Transfusion; 60,6:1332-1333. June 2020

Affiliations: DeGowin Blood Center, Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC), Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

Abstract: As transfusion medicine specialists we understood the potential that convalescent plasma (CCP) could play early in the management of patients with COVID-19. However, with no guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we could not begin to establish a program for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) CCP. That changed on March 24, 2020, when the FDA issued its first guidance on this topic. The rules were clear: identify subjects with molecularly confirmed COVID-19, and after they have been asymptomatic for 14 days, test them to confirm they are no longer infectious and that they are eligible to donate CCP. With a small hospital-based donor center, an academic medical center that had implemented molecular testing for COVID-19, and an established clinical research unit, we realized we were set to establish and implement a program quickly. In addition, Iowa City, Iowa, was an initial “hot spot” for patients, as a number of local people had been infected on an Egyptian cruise the first week of March. The purpose of this commentary is to briefly summarize our initial experience establishing the CCP program and propose ideas for how to move this treatment forward to the next phase. (…)