The liquid portion of the blood that is obtained from patients that have recovered from a certain infection is called Convalescent Plasma and its treatment to cure the infection by it is called ‘Convalescent Plasma Therapy’. Historically, many viral infections such as poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, and influenza have been used for this. Taking lessons from the past methods of fighting infectious diseases, convalescent plasma therapy was in talks for treatment of COVID-19. Following COVID 19 outbreak, researchers and health care professionals began to explore the possibility of using Convalescent Plasma Therapy to treat people with COVID-19. Although after much trials and experiments, top medical experts said Convalescent plasma therapy is not a “magic bullet” for the treatment of coronavirus, and only large-scale, controlled trials can determine its effectiveness as part of the strategy.

The FDA facilitates access to convalescent plasma, products rich in antibodies that are collected from eligible donors that have recovered from COVID-19. Convalescent plasma in COVID-19 has still not been shown to be reliable. The FDA states that determining its safety and efficacy through clinical trials is important prior to routinely administering convalescent plasma to patients with COVID-19.

The ICMR (Indian Medical Research Council) initiated a multi-center clinical trial on May 6, 2020, entitled ‘A Phase II, Open Label, Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma to Limit COVID-19 Associated Complications in Moderate Disease (PLACID Trial). The ICMR (Indian Medical Research Council) cleared the hurdle of conducting a multi-center Phase 2 trial using Convalescent Plasma on COVID 19 with moderate disease. His three feasibility studies have found the therapy to be safe and able to resolve disease or improve clinical symptoms in around 20 severely ill patients. At the moment this is not approved by the ICMR as a therapeutic choice outside of clinical trials. The ICMR conducts clinical trials on convalescent plasma therapy through a variety of hospitals around the world.

There is no credible clinical evidence to date to suggest whether Convalescent plasma therapy should be used as a COVID-19 treatment. Therefore, the US FDA and India approved the use of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients for trial purposes only.