–
The approval is a boost for President Trump on the eve of the Republican convention for the November election.
–
The United States Medicines Watchdog Food & Drug Administration (FDA) allows ’emergency use’ of an experimental therapy for covid-19 patients. The therapy consists of administering blood plasma from recovered corona patients in current patients. That plasma is rich in ‘virus fighting’ antibodies and can potentially boost survival rates.
–
“The first research data on plasma is encouraging,” said FDA director Stephan Hahn in the announcement. FDA research director Peter Marks notes that, according to that early data, patients under 80 years of age who are not on a ventilator are 35 percent more likely to be alive after a month if they were given blood plasma with many virus-fighting antibodies.
–
A fairly cautious statement, but at Trump’s press conference the nuance was somewhat lost. “The therapy has proven to reduce the mortality rate by 35 percent,” it said.
–
This weekend, the president on Twitter accused the deep state of the FDA for delaying testing and approval beyond November 3. That day, Trump will face his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in the presidential election.
–
For the FDA, it is difficult to negotiate between a US president who wants the fight against the pandemic to move quickly and the institution’s core task of ensuring that therapies are safe through extensive testing before they get the green light.
–
The timing of the news about therapy and vaccine is no coincidence: today the – virtual – Republican convention for the November 3 elections.
–
–
