Gandhi Medical College gets nod for plasma trials

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved Gandhi Medical College and Hospital as one among 21 such medical colleges in the country that will take part in its multi-centre PLACID Trials aimed at ascertaining the role of convalescent blood plasma in limiting Covid-19 disease.

The trial ‘A Phase II, Open Label, Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma to Limit COVID-19 Associated Complications in Moderate Disease’ (PLACID Trial) will include 452 Covid-19 positive patients from across the 21 teaching hospitals.

The ICMR received expression of interest to participate in the trials from 111 institutions. From South India, two teaching hospitals from Tamil Nadu including Madurai Medical College and Madras Medical College and one each from Karnataka and Telangana including Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli and Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad respectively have been chosen.

Three more hospitals from Hyderabad including ESIC Medical College, Sanathnagar, Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) and Apollo



Hospitals are among 90 more hospitals that applied to ICMR for taking part in the trials and ICMR said applications of additional hospitals were under consideration.

The CP therapy is part of several therapeutic possibilities that have potential to fight the novel strain of coronavirus with a concept to collect blood plasma from individuals who have recovered from Covid-19 and employ them on positive patients and enable them to fight the infection.

The therapy has been applied successfully in fighting outbreaks in the past including swine flu pandemic, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

The PLACID trial protocol has been registered with Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI) and received approval from the Covid-19 National Ethics Committee (CONEC). The generic protocol for this study has also been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) and clinical trial liability insurance has been bought centrally by ICMR.