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Polish firm starts producing COVID-19 drug using plasma

18.08.2020 22:30
Polish pharmaceuticals company Biomed Lublin said on Tuesday it has started producing a drug to treat COVID-19 using plasma from recovered patients.
Audio
  • Biomed Lublin CEO Marcin Piróg on launching production of the new COVID-19 medicine
Krzysztof Tomasiewicz (left) at a press conference on Tuesday.
Krzysztof Tomasiewicz (left) at a press conference on Tuesday. Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło

Clinical trials of the new drug are expected to begin in about two months, officials said.

Biomed plans to produce about 3,000 doses in its first batch. The drug will be administered to patients at an infectious diseases clinic in Lublin, eastern Poland, where the trials will be conducted, state news agency PAP reported.

Krzysztof Tomasiewicz, the head of the clinic, said: “Our expectations are really high.”

He added: “There is a good chance that we will have a drug that will be effective for a very large proportion of patients.”

A total of 57,876 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Poland since the start of the pandemic, and 1,896 have died from the COVID-19 respiratory disease so far, officials said on Tuesday.

The number of new virus cases rose by 597 from the previous day, while the death toll increased by 11, according to public health authorities.

On August 8, Poland's public health authorities reported a record daily rise of 843 new coronavirus infections nationwide, the most since the pandemic hit the country in early March.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP

Click on the "Play" button above to listen to an interview with Biomed Lublin's CEO Marcin Piróg, who talked to Radio Poland's Tomasz Ferenc