Early Convalescent Plasma Therapy for High-risk Patients With COVID-19 in Primary Care (the CoV-Early Study)

Summary

An effective, widely available, and safe treatment that can decrease the duration, severity and fatality of COVID-19 is urgently needed. Also, in the most affected regions the pressure on health care systems including ventilator support capacity can be a limiting factor for survival. Initial studies including from our group indicate that administering convalescent plasma containing high titers of neutralizing antibodies to COVID-19 patients who are already relatively late during the disease course after hospital admission is not effective, which can be explained by high titers of autologous antibodies present in patients. Thus, the antiviral capacity of convalescent plasma is hypothesized to be best positioned early in the disease course and in patients at increased risk for a severe disease course. If effective, any treatment that decreases the need for hospital admission is very valuable but so far, no COVID-19 treatment has been shown to prevent clinical deterioration when given before patients are admitted to the hospital.

Primary objective:

To evaluate the efficacy, feasibility and safety following the administration of convalescent plasma (ConvP) as a therapy for outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19 at increased risk for an unfavourable clinical outcome and within 7 days after symptom onset.

Study design:

This trial is a nationwide multicenter, double blind, randomized controlled trial in the Netherlands. Patients will be randomized between the transfusion of 300mL of convP versus regular fresh frozen plasma (FFP).

Patient population:

Patients with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed COVID disease with less than 8 days of symptoms, age 70 or older or 50-69 years with at least 1 additional risk factor for severe COVID-19 are eligible.

Intervention:

300mL of convP with a minimum level of neutralizing antibodies.

A total of 690 patients will be included. Expected duration of accrual: 18-24 months Duration of follow up :Day 28 for the primary endpoint

Conditions

• Covid19

Interventions

BIOLOGICAL

ConvP

Infusion of plasma retrieved from donors with a history of PCR proven symptomatic COVID. Plasma will be administered according to the Erasmus MC KIS protocol regarding the use of blood products

BIOLOGICAL

FFP

Infusion of thawed non-convalescent plasma Plasma will be administered according to the Erasmus Medical Center quality protocol regarding the use of blood products

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Prothya Biosolutions

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

  collaborator OTHER

• Leiden University Medical Center

  collaborator OTHER

• Erasmus Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Bart Rijnders, MD, PhD · Erasmus Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-10-12

Primary Completion

2021-10-01

Completion

2022-03-01

Countries

• Netherlands

Study Locations