Potential Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma to Treat Severe COVID-19 and Patients at High Risk of Developing Severe COVID-19

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has started to affect Saudi Arabia and is expected to cause a lot of morbidities and many patients, especially the elderly, will require intensive care unit (ICU) support to survive as its lethality increases with the increasing age. Development of a vaccine by pharmaceutical companies like Roche and antibody concentrates from convalescent patients' plasma by Takeda will take 10-12 months to complete, and we speculate that it will be overwhelmingly expensive and limited in supply. We are presenting this urgent proposal to use the convalescent plasma to save the lives of severely affected COVID-19 patients. Most of the logistic support is already available in MOH Saudi Arabia, and it will be a cheap and quick technique based on the time-tested principles of passive immunization which is supported by the most recent data from China. We are proposing to test the therapeutic potential of convalescent plasma (from patients who have fully recovered from COVID-19) in treating patients with serious COVID-19 disease or those who are at risk of developing a serious disease based on their comorbidities profile. Convalescent plasma could provide our first-line defense for people with Covid-19, especially those who are older and at a much higher risk for complications. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with no available vaccine or proven antiviral drug, antibodies from recovering patients could provide a "stopgap" measure to help in controlling the pandemic effects on health and economy. We plan to recruit at least 40 consenting donors and patients. Non-consenting patients will serve as controls.