Wockhardt Hospital has started plasma therapy trials on select Covid-19 patients at its facility in the heart of Mumbai.

The convalescent plasma therapy trial is being tried on patients with mild to moderate Covid symptoms. Of the 20 patients who will participate in the randomised trial about 10 will be given about 350-400 ml plasma, Behram Pardiwala, Principal Investigator of the plasma trial, told BusinessLine .

Just months ago, Wockhardt Hospital was one of three large hospitals in the city impacted by Covid. “Our doctors and nurses who had Covid have now volunteered to give plasma,” said Pardiwala.

Approvals have been obtained for the trials from the Drug Controller General of India and the Indian Council of Medical Research, he said. As a result, 10 patients will be part of the control group and in fact, the “first three patients were controls”, he said. (The impact of the therapy becomes evident when compared against the control group that does not get the plasma.)

The therapy involves taking plasma from the blood of individuals who have recovered from Covid, as it would have antibodies to fight the virus, and transfusing it into patients. Presently the therapy and all other Covid treatment for the 20 patients is free, he said.

The plasma is presently being given to Covid patients showing mild or moderate symptoms, to prevent their condition from worsening, he said. This would be one of the bouquet of options available to doctors, including drugs such as favipiravir and remdesivir, he said and it was up to the doctor to make the decision depending on the condition of the patient and the manner in which the infection progressed.

The patient would be followed up for a month, the doctor said, so the progress could be mapped and conveyed to the regulator. While it is highly unlikely that a recovered Covid patient could get reinfected, he said, plasma therapy patients would be protected as long as the plasma lasts in the body. But by then their natural immunity and antibodies would kick-in, he added.

Other hospitals in the country are also undertaking plasma therapy on Covid patients, and it was recently in the news when Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain was given plasma therapy when his condition reportedly worsened.

Currently, all 120 beds in Wockhardt Hospital are dedicated to treating Covid, Pardiwala said, indicating that hospitals were looking at opening up for other illness as well.

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