COVID-19 convalescent plasma no real help to at-risk ED patients, study confirms

In a federally funded study that enrolled more than 500 patients from U.S. hospital emergency departments, administering COVID-19 convalescent plasma to high-risk COVID-19 outpatients with early symptoms did not prevent disease progression, according to final results reported yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the clinical trial was halted in February after an independent board concluded that the treatment was unlikely to help such patients. 

“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%,” said Clifton Callaway, M.D., principal investigator and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.