Polish company starts production of drug using plasma of COVID-19 recovered people

A Polish biomedical firm started production on Tuesday of a medicine for COVID-19 using blood plasma of the recovered from the coronavirus, local media reported.

The first tests using the new medicine are scheduled to start in October and will take around four months to complete.

Biomed Lublin is to produce 3,000 ampules that will be used on patients of a hospital in Lublin in eastern Poland. If the tests are successful, the medicine will be registered for general use, a process that according to the producer is to be fast-tracked to 150 days instead of the normal 210.

The new drug is a treatment agent rather than a vaccine, the producer emphasized.

“Even if work on a vaccine will eventually be a success, this medicine will be working complementarily,” said Grzegorz Czelej, a senator for the ruling Law and Justice party, during a joint press conference at the producer.

“Poland is the only country in Central and Eastern Europe that has the technology to produce this drug. Antibodies in blood plasma are scientifically proven to be effective against COVID-19.”

The medicine is to be given through injection and should help patients in creating antibodies to ease the progression of the illness.

Biomed Lublin has collected 150 liters of blood plasma for the creation of the ampules. Czelej told journalists that he has appealed to other European Union countries to open blood banks for the collection of additional plasma.