An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) recommended on Feb. 25 that NIH’s stop enrolling new patients. The Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma of Outpatients — which had already enrolled 511 participants from 47 hospital emergency departments across the U.S. — found no harm from convalescent plasma. Still, there was no significant difference in hospitalization and death rates among those receiving the plasma and those receiving a placebo.
FDA in August 2020 granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) for investigational convalescent plasma in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients, noting at the time that the plasma might help some hospitalize…