Grifols (GRF): siguiendo de cerca la acción

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BRUSSELS, July 29 (Reuters) - The European Union has made
available up to 45 million euros ($53 million) to increase the
collection of plasma from COVID-19 survivors for the treatment
of people who contract the disease, a spokesman told Reuters.
    The move confirms the EU's growing confidence in
experimental therapies based on so-called convalescent plasma,
which is currently used in hospitals for direct transfusions to
critically ill patients and is being tested to develop possible
medicines against COVID-19 [nL8N2EF56U].  
    Money is coming from an emergency fund that the European
Union has so far used only for highly sensitive issues
throughout the pandemic, including the purchase of another
COVID-19 treatment and potential vaccines.
    Grants will be distributed to blood collection centres to
help them buy new equipment, such as testing kits and machines
that separate plasma from blood, the EU spokesman said.
    Collection centres run by private companies could also
access the funding, an EU official said. 
    Spain's Grifols <GRLS.MC> and a corporate alliance led by
Japanese drugmaker Takeda <4502.T> have collected convalescent
plasma to develop a medicine against COVID-19.
    The Takeda-led alliance, which also includes Biotest AG
<BIOG.DE>, CSL Behring and Octapharma Plasma, said earlier it
was set to delay the launch of clinical trials on its
plasma-based drug which were due to begin in July because of
regulatory issues [nL3N2F02GB].
    The European Commission's spokesman said the money made
available to help the collection of plasma could also be used to
cover costs to retool drugs against COVID-19.
    But "it is expected that a large part of the available
funding will be used for plasma", the spokesman said.
    The EU sealed in July supply deals with Roche for its
arthritis drug RoActemra and with Merck for its multiple
sclerosis drug Rebif, which were both being retooled to treat
COVID-19 patients alone or in combination with other drugs
[nL8N2EF2N8].
    The Commission declined to clarify on Wednesday whether
funds were made available to Roche and Merck to repurpose their
drugs or whether the supply deal with Roche was still valid
after RoActemra failed its COVID-19 trial earlier on Wednesday
[nL5N2F010O]
    Money for plasma comes from an EU emergency fund which the
Commission said on Wednesday deployed 63 million euros to buy
remdesivir, the only drug at this stage authorised in the bloc
against COVID-19 [nL5N2F03VU].
    The bloc has also committed about 2 billion euros of the
rainy-day fund to secure advance purchase deals of potential
vaccines against the disease, EU officials told Reuters. 
    ($1 = 0.8524 euros)