Short-term anti-body passive immunisation

Alongside work on a potential vaccine, the Peter Doherty Institute and the University of Queensland are collaborating to develop a 'passive immunisation' treatment. If successful, the treatment would involve production and injection of anti-bodies to provide immediate protection against infection, but which must be renewed every two months. The Foundation is advised that this passive immunisation approach is promising because it may provide an interim treatment should the vaccine require more time to develop. It would enable medical and nursing staff to continue to work amid exposure to Covid-19, meaning health systems could sustain service through even the worst-case outbreak. After information has been identified on which part of the immune system leads to a full recovery (using rapid whole blood assays), passive immunisation scientists will isolate cross-reactive antibodies from infected patients and reproduce them at scale. These monoclonal antibodies will be directly transferred to a non-immune person to provide temporary protection.