CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – UVA Health is part of a worldwide clinical trial examining a potential COVID treatment using a drug made with antibodies gathered from healthy people who’ve recovered from the illness and had received a COVID vaccine.

UVA Health pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist Dr. Jeffrey Sturek said in a recent reporters’ conference call the trial involves an anti-coronavirus hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin made from the plasma donated by the aforementioned.

Dr. Sturek said this approach is nothing new, but this trial goes about the objective in a better way.

In fact, Dr. Sturek noted, “We’ve been testing this kind of thing for about a hundred years in various infections in different ways, and we tested it during the pandemic but in ways that aren’t quite as smart.”

He explained during the pandemic, they used the technique to make a specific antibody to a specific virus which ended up not working as well as the virus mutated.

This trial is taking a collection of antibodies and making “the most highly concentrated and hopefully efficacious product that we can”.

Dr. Sturek acknowledged, and expressed relief, that COVID is not the highly deadly illness it was during the pandemic.

But he said it is still a severe respiratory illness, “So it’s really important for us to keep targeting those vulnerable folks in particular, and also older patients we know are at risk for more severe disease.”

“So, it is still a significant health threat we want to make more progress on.”

For more information on the trial at UVA Health, email “CovidTrialsUVA@uvahealth.org” or call 434-243-4008 or 855-UVA-JEDI.