Polish company launches production of a drug for COVID-19

Biomed Lublin has started production of the first batch of a drug for COVID-19 from convalescent plasma. It will be subjected to clinical trials that will begin in about two months, said representatives of Biomed and the Medical University of Lublin on Tuesday.

"Today we are starting production, we are starting fractionation," said Piotr Fic, a member of the Biomed management board, at a press conference. "From today, it will be about two months until the release of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin for clinical trials. We will be able to release the drug for clinical trials, probably by the end of October," he added.

Biomed is to produce about 3,000 ampoules of the drug in the first batch, that will be administered to patients in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Independent Public Hospital No. 1 (PSK 1) in Lublin, eastern Poland, where clinical trials will be conducted. They will last about four months, after which the drug can be submitted for registration and then be sold.

The head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at PSK 1, prof. Krzysztof Tomasiewicz, stated that coronavirus was not going to go away and would probably linger, so creating an effective form of therapy and prevention was extremely important. He noted that administering convalescent plasma to patients has brought about very good results, so a drug made from blood plasma should be effective.

"We have really great and optimistic expectations, which are supported by certain experiments. There is a good chance that we will have a drug that will work on a very large proportion of patients," said Tomasiewicz.