Israeli Biopharma Company Kamada To Roll Out Antibody Treatment For COVID-19

Israeli biopharmaceutical company Kamada announced that it completed development on a plasma-derived antibody treatment for COVID-19, also known as a passive vaccine. The Rehovot-based company plans to make it available under the compassionate use program in Israel, a treatment option that allows for the use of not-yet-authorized medicine for severely ill patients.

Kamada said in a statement last week that it completed the manufacturing of the first batch of its plasma-derived IgG product for COVID-19 based on the company’s approved proprietary IgG platform technology and that they are available for compassionate use in Israel. When it first announced the development of the treatment in early March, Kamada said the “Anti-Corona (COVID-19) IgG product is expected to be produced from plasma derived from donors recovered from the virus, which is anticipated to include antibodies to the novel coronavirus.”

The company expects to begin a Phase 1/2 clinical trial later this year, having submitted its proposed clinical protocol to the Israeli Ministry of Health.

As part of its clinical development program to the US, Kamada partnered with Kedrion Biopharma, an Italy-headquartered company with facilities in Hungary and the United States, to seek approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a proposed clinical development program. Kedrion is currently collecting COVID-19 convalescent plasma from recovered patients in the US that will be used by Kamada to manufacture additional batches of the product.

“We are extremely pleased with the rapid and important progress achieved to date in advancing our plasma-derived IgG product for COVID-19,” said Amir London, Kamada’s CEO. “To the best of our knowledge, Kamada is the first company globally to complete manufacturing of a plasma-derived IgG product for the treatment of COVID-19. This achievement validates our advanced IgG development and manufacturing capabilities and our ability to rapidly focus our efforts on providing potential solutions to emerging pandemic situations.”