Blood Plasma Therapies For COVID-19

With the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, there’s a lot of interest in the global effort to develop a vaccine. Below the radar, researchers are exploring many other treatment options, including a century-old therapy that has been used to combat outbreaks of polio, measles, mumps, and influenza. Convalescent plasma therapy, which was commonly used before the introduction of antibiotics, involves injecting the blood plasma of patients who have recovered from an illness into patients with the same illness. In this webinar, you’ll learn about convalescent plasma therapy and other plasma-based therapies currently being investigated in trials as potential treatments for COVID-19. You’ll also learn about the CONCOR-1 study, a nationwide clinical trial approved by Health Canada on the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19. Can this old therapy hold the key to the current pandemic?

Speakers:

• Dr. Dana Devine, Chief Scientist, Canadian Blood Services
• Dr. Jeannie Callum, Transfusion Medicine Specialist and Hematologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Suzanne McGurn, President and Chief Executive Officer, CADTH

To participate, please register (there is no cost). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about how to join the webinar.