CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance Expands Membership and Clinical Trial Collaboration

The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, a plasma industry collaboration established to accelerate the development of a plasmaderived hyperimmune globulin therapy for COVID-19, now includes 11 plasma companies, and now also includes global organizations from outside the plasma industry who are providing vital support to encourage more people to donate plasma. In addition to those announced at its inception — Biotest, BPL, CSL Behring, LFB, Octapharma and Takeda — the alliance’s new industry members include ADMA Biologics, BioPharma Plasma, GC Pharma, Liminal BioSciences and Sanquin that will contribute specialist advisory expertise, technical guidance and/ or in-kind support to contribute to the Alliance goal of accelerating development and distribution of a potential treatment option for COVID-19.

The alliance is also working with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health to test the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the hyperimmune therapy in adult patients with COVID-19. This global study, which started in the summer, will form the foundation for the potential regulatory approval of the hyperimmune therapy.

“Hyperimmune globulin therapy has the potential to be one of the earliest treatment options for COVID-19, and we look forward to working with NIAID and health authorities to bring this therapy to patients as early as possible,” said Bill Mezzanotte, executive vice president and head of research and development at CSL Behring and co-leader of the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance. “One of the stated goals of the alliance is to be an effective partner for important institutions such as NIAID and also to help develop coherent regulatory strategies that can give global health authorities the confidence to streamline the approval process of hyperimmune globulin therapy for COVID-19.”

Because developing a hyperimmune globulin treatment relies on the collection of convalescent plasma, the alliance has gained support from large organizations outside of the plasma industry such as Microsoft and Uber Health. Microsoft is providing technology support, including the alliance website and the plasmabot for donor recruitment. The plasmabot streamlines the process for a potential donor to quickly gain information about their nearest collection center from across the member network. In parallel, Uber Health donated 25,000 round-trip rides to transport potentially eligible donors to and from plasma collection centers. These rides are coordinated by the plasma collection center directly for individuals with confirmed appointments.

“Partnership and collaboration are critical to the success of the CoVIg-19 program,” said Julie Kim, president of plasma-derived therapies business unit at Takeda, and co-leader of the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance. “We now have enough plasma to initiate clinical manufacturing, but more is needed to ensure both speed and scale. The growing and active involvement of leading companies from outside the plasma industry who support this alliance, as well as convalescent plasma for transfusion initiatives, demonstrates the potential of convalescent plasma to fight this public health crisis. Together, we all share the same goal — to save lives by using the power of convalescent plasma in different ways.”