New York will be the first state to test using antibody-rich plasma from recovered coronavirus patients in people who are ill, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced during a news briefing Monday. The treatment, known as convalescent plasma, could provide “passive immunity” until the patient’s immune system can generate its own antibodies. The treatment will need to be studied for use as a coronavirus treatment, but the Food and Drug Administration approved the state’s experimental use of the drug on a compassionate care basis, Cuomo said. An FDA spokesperson told The Washington Post the agency “is working expeditiously to facilitate the development and availability of convalescent plasma as a potential treatment option for COVID-19 to those patients who are in greatest need.” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn listed the plasma treatment among what the federal government was weighing in a White House press briefing last week. “Over the next couple weeks, we’ll have more information on that,” he said. “We’re really pushing hard to try to accelerate that. That’s in the sort of more medium- and short-term, and that’ll be a bridge to other therapies that will take us three to six months to develop.” Cuomo announced the trial Monday, saying it “shows promise” but that it is among several options the state was looking into. New York has more than 20,000 confirmed cases and more than 150 deaths. “Even though we are optimistic, we won’t know until we know,” Dr. Arturo Casadevall, who has researched convalescent plasma and is chair of the molecular microbiology and immunology department at Johns Hopkins University, said on CNN. Casadevall said it could be deployed “in a matter of weeks.” Medical documentation of the use of this type of treatment dates back to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 — before modern vaccines. Source
