Setback in the hunt for corona drug: antibodies quickly disappear from blood | Inland

The plan was to recruit 16,000 donors, who together donate 50,000 times plasma. That should yield 30,000 kilos of plasma full of antibodies against Covid-19. A corona drug must be produced from this. The cabinet is making 10 million euros available for the project, which could already yield results this autumn.

The 16,000 donors have been found, but they are donating less often than hoped and not all donations are suitable. “We have received 20,000 donations,” says a Sanquin spokesperson. “That yielded 8,000 to 9,000 kilos of blood plasma, but some of that will still lose weight.”

‘Not worrying’

In some of the donors, the antibodies, which are crucial for any medication, appear to disappear quickly from the blood. This is not immediately a concern in view of immunity, says Hans Zaaijer, professor of microbiology. “But for the production of medicines we need plasma with a high content of antibodies. We expected that the amount of antibodies would be very high for longer. ”

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