FDA Eases Blood Plasma Treatment Rule for COVID

Access to a blood plasma treatment for seriously ill coronavirus patients has been made easier by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency said Tuesday that it’s “facilitating access” for patients with life-threatening infections to receive injections of blood plasma taken from people who’ve recovered after testing positive for the coronavirus and have antibodies to the virus, CNN reported.

The treatment is being tested in clinical trials by the state of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

The FDA decision is a “big step” forward, Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chief of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN.

“It has a high likelihood of working, but we won’t know whether it works until it’s done” and enough patients have been treated, he said. “We do know, based on history, it has a good chance,” said Casadevall, who has pushed for the plasma treatment.