A facility in Clayton will play key role in a potential therapy for COVID-19
Spanish biotechnology company Grifols, which has a large presence in the Triangle, said Wednesday that it will begin the first stages of a clinical trial for a COVID-19 treatment at its facility in Clayton.
The biotech company said in a release it has entered into a partnership with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA) and the Food and Drug Administration to harvest plasma — the water-based portion of blood that holds many proteins — from recovering COVID-19 patients and process it into a hyperimmune globulin.
The trials will determine if that hyperimmune globulin, which holds antibodies that fight things like viruses and bacteria, can be used to successfully treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the pandemic coronavirus. If Grifols can separate coronavirus-fighting antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients, they believe they might be able to donate them to patients that can’t produce enough antibodies to fight the coronavirus.
As part of the collaboration with BARDA, the government will identify consenting donors who have recovered from COVID-19 and refer them to Grifols, which has the largest plasma donor center network in the U.S., with more than 250 centers.
Grifols, which focuses heavily on plasma-based therapies, has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into its facilities in Clayton, a town in Johnston County about 20 miles southeast of Raleigh. The Barcelona-headquartered company is now the largest private employer in Johnston County, employing more than a thousand people there, The News & Observer previously reported.
The biotech company has had a presence in the Triangle since 2010, when it bought Research Triangle Park-based Talecris for more than $3 billion.
It has continued to invest heavily in its Clayton facilities, and will open a new plant there in the next year. When that is open the Clayton facility will be the world’s largest plasma fractionation site, according to David Bell, Grifols’ chief innovation officer.
The fractionation process separates different proteins from the plasma. Once they are separated, the proteins can be purified and sterilized for future use as components of medicines that help rejuvenate or replace missing proteins in other patients’ plasma.
The company has created therapies through this process to treat a number of different diseases, including hepatitis A, hemophilia and Alzheimer’s.
The company also has a large office in Research Triangle Park, where its biosciences headquarters is located. The company now employs 2,800 people in North Carolina — 500 of whom work in RTP, the N&O previously reported.
Other possible treatments for COVID-19 are also in development in the Triangle.
Duke University Hospital in Durham said Wednesday that it will participate in the first national clinical tests of an antiviral agent known as remdesivir, The News & Observer reported.
At Duke’s hospital, patients with significant symptoms will be given the option of taking part in the trial.
That drug, created by Gilead Sciences, is on the fast track for potential wider usage if it proves safe. It is also being studied in trials in China.
Normally, a clinical trial can take months to begin, but because of the urgency surrounding the pandemic, this trial was organized at Duke within six days, the N&O reported.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
