SYDNEY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Australian biotechnology company CSL announced on Wednesday it will immediately start developing a treatment for intensive care COVID-19 patients, using blood plasma donated by those who have recovered from the virus.
CSL will use its manufacturing facility in Victoria State to extract antibodies from donated plasma, to be pooled, purified and concentrated to make COVID-19 Immunoglobulin, also known as a hyperimmune globulin.
"CSL Behring's manufacturing facility will be one of the first in the world to commence development of a COVID-19 Immunoglobulin that may provide benefit to seriously ill Australians in need of treatment," Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
The development will be advanced in two phases -- phase one will produce a small quantity of this experimental product for testing to detect the presence of the antibodies targeting COVID-19.
Phase two will produce a larger batch of the product to be used in a clinical trial in Australian hospitals to determine its safety.
It is estimated up to 800 plasma donations will be required to produce sufficient COVID-19 Immunoglobulin to treat 50-100 seriously ill people under the clinical trial.
The plasma will be collected by Australian Red Cross Lifeblood from donors in Australia with high levels of COVID-19 antibodies in their blood.
CSL added that this Australian based project would be of mutual benefit to an existing global alliance with other health companies to pool expertise and resources to accelerate development of plasma derived treatments for COVID-19. Enditem
