COVID-19 Scams? Poland Claims To Have First Drug For COVID-19 While Its Country Is Reporting A Spike In COVID-19 Cases!

COVID-19 Scams? Biomed Lublin a Polish pharmaceutical company claims to have successfully completed the production of a drug for COVID-19.


 
The company released a media statement on September 23 that its initial research “has confirmed its efficacy” and that it now plans to begin non-commercial clinical trials, and that if all goes well Poland could be the first country in the world to have an effective drug capable of neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus at some stage over the next few months.
 
Thailand Medical News however notes that there are no published studies let alone any peer-reviewed research to back any of its claims nor have any human trials been concluded to make such daring claims. Furthermore there are a lot of controversies emerging about plasma therapy and also about antibody resistance developing as a result of none proper usage of antibodies.
 
The company (Biomed Lublin) says that the drug is made by fractionating the plasma of healthy people-convalescents or those who had COVID-19 asymptomatically and contains anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins.
 
Marcin Piróg, CEO of Biomed Lublin told media, “We have unequivocally proven that it is possible to produce a drug containing a concentrated dose of such antibodies and it can effectively use human plasma, which, after the fractionation process, can be converted into a drug with a treatment efficiency greater than plasma alone. This is of great importance, especially taking into account the number of COVID-19 patients and how valuable and rare the raw material is given the current situation.”
 
Mr Piróg added,  “More than 3,000 ampoules of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin have been produced, which after the completion of the required quality tests, including product stability tests, will be submitted to clinical trials in four centers: in Lublin, Bytom, Białystok and Warsaw. The release of the drug for non-commercial clinical trials is planned in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
 
The company says that it already manufactures other recognized human plasma drugs, such as Gamma anti-D and Gamma anti-HBs. The same technology was used by the company to produce anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin.
 
It was said that the project to come up with a Polish COVID-19 drug was initiated in March by Grzegorz Czelej a Polish doctor and senator, and Waldemar Sierocki, a member of Biomed Lublin’s supervisory board.
 
Mr Czelej said, “We have a drug, a Polish drug for COVID-19, that works,” “Since the drug was created thanks to the generosity of Polish convalescents, Poles will be the first to receive it. Also, Poles should come up with a name for it. We are waiting for suggestions.”
 
Alarmingly Mr Czelej also called on the country’s authorities to make the process of approving the drug as quickly as possible despite lack of any clinical evidence.
 
He added, “The treatment of Covid-19 with plasma from convalescents has already been approved by the World Health Organization, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Polish Ministry of Health. Scientists from around the world report on the effectiveness of plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19. The safety of plasma drugs has been proven by several decades of practice, which is confirmed by experts. So, I appeal to the relevant authorities to issue a decision on the approval of this drug for coronavirus in ‘epidemic mode. Similar practices have already taken place in the case of other drugs conditionally approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in order to save the health and life of patients.” (what he did not realized was that the US FDA and WHO approvals are under EUA status only.)
 
He said that if Biomed Lublin were to receive more batches of plasma from convalescents from Polish regional blood donation and treatment centers, it will be able to plan the production of new batches of the drug that can be used to treat patients with COVID-19 before the completion of approval procedures. He also confirmed that the company was looking to purchase plasma from abroad.
 
He added, “It is important if and when we receive confirmation of the possible availability of further plasma donations from convalescents. We must also take care to ensure the availability of other health and life-saving plasma-derived drugs, for the production of which we use the same production infrastructure.”
 
Mr Piróg further added, “We produce our medicine from plasma obtained from donors in Poland and we are currently focusing on local needs. Nevertheless, we have already taken steps to check the possibility of purchasing plasma from convalescents from other countries, including the US, from where we are already buying plasma for the production of our other plasma-derived drugs. In addition, depending on the production capacity, we are able to consider the production of entrusted plasma for the needs of countries that would like to use Biomed Lublin and its technology to receive anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins for the treatment of patients in their countries. Nevertheless, I emphasize that Poland is a priority now. We count on the support of the National Blood Centre and the Ministry of Health in accessing Polish plasma.”
 
Meanwhile Poland on Friday reported a record spike of 1,587 new coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period, in line with a rise in other parts of Eastern Europe where numbers have been relatively low.
 
It was reported that the number of daily reported cases has been rising steadily in Poland in recent days, with 711 on Tuesday, 974 on Wednesday and 1,136 on Thursday.
 
The Polish health ministry also reported 23 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, bringing the total to 2,392.
 
Face masks have been made compulsory in all public spaces in some parts of Poland because of the rise in cases and the obligation is likely to be extended in the coming days, the ministry said.
 
Interestingly, the biggest increases were seen in the central region where Warsaw is located and in a southern region bordering Slovakia. This is also where Biomed Lublin is located and maybe this would help them in collecting more blood plasma from the infected there!
 
Also Slovakia's daily increase of 419 on Friday was also a record high for the country, while the Czech Republic saw a rise of 1,627 well below a peak of 3,130 cases registered last week.
 
It was reported that the sharp rise in the Czech Republic forced Prime Minister Andrej Babis to issue a mea culpa this week apologizing for easing restrictions aimed at containing the virus.
 
Authorities across Europe are struggling with a second wave of COVID-19 infections following the holiday months in which the number of cases began rising and as schools and universities re-open.
 
Thailand Medical News would like warn readers to beware ofa  lot of misinformation and fake news emerging from government and health authorities of certain countries and health organizations with the support of social media like twitter and also manipulated research to support drugs with actual no efficacy that is sometimes backed by pharma giants discreetly. Always do your own due diligence carefully.
 
For more COVID-19 Scams?, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.