The US Food and Drug Administration has given green signal for the emergency use of the plasma to treat critically sick patients. The technique involves use of antibody-rich blood plasma from people who have recovered from the disease and has already been experimented on more than 70,000 COVID-19 patients in the country. President Trump is hopeful that the treatment could reduce deaths by 35 percent.
The authorization of the emergency use comes a day after the Republican accused FDA of blocking the circulation of vaccines and therapeutics for political motives. The move converges with Republican National Convention where Mr. Trump will formally start his bid to win a second 4-year term in WH.
“This is what I’ve been looking forward to doing for a long time,” the president told reporters on Sunday. “I’m pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives.”
Showing his belief in procedure, he described it as a powerful therapy and he urged the public to come forward to donate the fluid if they have recovered from coronavirus. The FDA, though, has not given the full approval for use of Plasma and rather sanctioned the emergency use saying that early research suggests blood plasma can reduce death rate and stabilized patient’s health if applied within the first three days of their hospitalization. However more trials are needed to reach a conclusion whether it is beneficial or not.
According to Food and Drug agency they made the decision after testing the safety and effectiveness though and extensive review of data gathered in different months. In a statement, the agency confirmed that that the effectiveness of the plasma prevailed over any risks.
“It appeared that the product is safe and we’re comfortable with that and we continue to see no concerning safety signals,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, according to Reuters news agency.
However, a number of experts including Anthony Fauci, seemed concern about the usefulness of the treatment. FDA has already approved the use of plasma therapy on critically ill corona cases and those volunteering for clinical trials.
President Trump in his tweet on Tuesday said, “the deep state, or whoever, at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics.
“Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after [the US presidential election],” he added.
