ISLAMABAD: In a major development to fight coronavirus, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has allowed clinical trials of blood plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients in the country, ARY News reported on Thursday.
Plasma, the fluid in blood teeming with antibodies post-illness, has already proven effective in small studies to treat infectious diseases including Ebola and SARS.
The announcement was made by Special Assistant to PM on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza, here today.
“The DRAP has also approved local manufacturing of the raw material of the anti-malarial drug, chloroquine.”
Dr Mirza said the DRAP has also allowed clinical tests of the domestically produced ventilators.
More than 50 local companies have been permitted to produce hand sanitiizers due to the shortage of it [hand sanitizers] in the market.
Read more: Chinese doctors using plasma therapy on coronavirus
The permission to the companies has been given for three months only.
The companies holding licenses have been asked to produce hand sanitizers in the line of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
It may be noted that last month, Pakistan’s first coronavirus patient, Yahya Jaffri, who has fully recovered from the disease, had donated his blood at the Children’s Hospital and Research Institute Karachi for the extraction of plasma, which could be used for the treatment of a critical patient infected with \ COVID-19
