University of Missouri

Oct. 19, 2020

The University of Missouri School of Medicine is one of the first institutions in the world to enroll a patient in a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical trial designed to test the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a combination treatment for COVID-19.

The patients will receive the antiviral drug remdesivir plus hyperimmune immunoglobulin, a highly concentrated solution of antibodies from the plasma of patients who have recovered from COVID-19.

“The trial will test the hypothesis that giving patients these concentrated antibodies at the onset of COVID-19 symptoms could assist the body’s natural response to the virus,” said site principal investigator Christian Rojas Moreno, associate professor of clinical medicine and infectious disease specialist at MU Health Care. “By attacking the virus in the early stages, this treatment may reduce the risk of complications or death.”

“Our team did an amazing job of getting our clinical site registered and open for this study,” said Mark McIntosh, MU vice chancellor for research and economic development. “We are excited to be one of the first institutions involved in such an important contribution to the international efforts to combat this pandemic.”

The hyperimmune immunoglobulin trial is just one of the major COVID-19 trials ongoing at the MU School of Medicine. Past projects involved testing hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 prophylaxis for health care workers and the convalescent plasma trial involving donated plasma from those who have recovered from the virus given to hospitalized patients seriously ill with the virus.

Read more from the MU School of Medicine