Press release: EU Commission allocates €4m grant for SUPPORT-E        

SUPPORT-E EU-project on COVID-19 convalescent plasma was selected by the European Commission for funding. It will provide recommendations to tackle COVID-19 and guidance on how to best use convalescent plasma to address the current pandemic and potential future ones, at European level.

The European project SUPPORT-E (SUPPORTing high-quality evaluation of COVID-19 convalescent plasma throughout Europe) was signed this week by the European Blood Alliance (EBA), coordinator of the project and the European Commission, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.

In the absence of validated treatment for COVID-19, this pan-European initiative is unique as it assesses at EU level the potency of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) to treat patients with COVID-19, through clinicals trials supported via this project. It will allow healthcare and policy makers to include or not CCP as a treatment within therapeutically options, based on sound science and evaluation.

“It is essential for patients, healthcare professionals, and blood product donors (including plasma) that the potential therapeutic assets of CCP is studied and analysed at European level, with the support of the European Commission, to pool expertise and resources, so that to ensure safety and quality of the end product”, said Professor Pierre Tiberghien, President of EBA and Leader of SUPPORT-E.

The project’s main goals are to provide support to high-quality clinical evaluation of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) and to achieve a consensus on the appropriate use of CCP in the treatment of COVID-19 across the EU Member States.

At the end of the project, the Consortium will provide the EU policy makers and the scientific community with recommendations and guidance, which will be beneficial to tackle the current and future pandemic throughout Europe and beyond.

The SUPPORT-E project will be funded within the EU research programme Horizon 2020 and will last for 24 months. Up to now, a Status Report on EU and International ongoing and upcoming clinical trials and a preliminary guidance document with assessment criteria for clinical trials have been produced. These documents lay down the foundation to efficiently achieve the other very challenging goals as scheduled.

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Disclaimer: The content of this press-release reflects only the author’s view and that the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101015756.