A recent study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found that convalescent plasma therapy (CP) in COVID-19 patients, does not help in reducing mortality nor curbs its progression to a severe stage.

“CP was not associated with a reduction in mortality or progression to severe COVID-19,” said the study, published in Medrxiv, a pre-print server for health sciences on Tuesday, adding this trial has high generalisability and approximates real-life setting of CP therapy in settings with limited laboratory capacity.

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The study has not been peer-reviewed yet. The study called PLACID, is the first randomised control trial to be completed in the world. Earlier, China and Netherlands had initiated a similar study, that could not be completed.

The study trial included 464 moderately ill coronavirus infected hospitalised patients, of whom 235 were given convalescent plasma along with best of standard care while 229 received only standard care. The participants were random picks from 29 hospitals, both public and private, across 14 states and union territories in India.

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The study also concluded that the level of antibodies present in the plasma produced “no differences in outcomes.”

While, CP therapy has received official medical approval for use in patients in many countries, there was no large-scale scientific study to prove its efficacy.

“Given these uncertainties, we undertook the current study to determine the effectiveness of using CP and determine the associated short-term adverse effects,” the study said.