Facing the
COVID-19 challenge

Since the pandemic began, Grifols has made its expertise in plasma available to health authorities, governments, regulatory agencies, and society in general. At Grifols, we believe this current and extraordinary situation requires healthcare companies like ours to strive further to serve patients and society.

For over a century, Grifols has been a healthcare company at the vanguard of blood- and plasma-therapy development, with the aim of enhancing people's health and well-being.

At Grifols, we believe in the therapeutic potential of human plasma and its components. During this unprecedented health crisis, plasma from patients who have recovered from COVID-19, called convalescent plasma, has been identified as a therapeutic option that can potentially help combat the disease.

This plasma from recovered COVID-19 donors contains antibodies which are specific against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These antibodies are proteins called immunoglobulins, which may help the body fight this infectious disease.

Convalescent plasma is currently being investigated to be used:

• For direct transfusion.
• To develop a medicine, a hyperimmune globulin.

Grifols has been applying its broad knowledge and deep expertise in producing immunoglobulins to manufacture a specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin to combat two different stages of COVID-19 disease: hospitalized patients and asymptomatic outpatients.

The clinical trial evaluating the safety, efficacy and tolerability of the intravenously administered anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin in hospitalized patients started in October 2020. It's the first international multicenter clinical trial of an immunoglobulin containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal antibodies from plasma donors who have recovered from the illness. The trial, which will include 500 hospitalized adults with COVID-19 in up to 58 hospitals covering 18 countries, is sponsored and funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In February, a study will start in Spain with 800 asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive patients who will receive the immunoglobulin subcutaneously on an outpatient basis. This trial will be led by the researchers Oriol Mitjà and Bonaventura Clotet from Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital in Badalona (Barcelona).

In addition to the hyperimmune globulin, Grifols is also carrying out several clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma for direct transfusion. On August 23, 2020, the FDA gave emergency use authorization (EUA) for convalescent plasma to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Grifols is collecting plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients using its network of more than 300 donor centers in the U.S. and Germany, the largest global network of donation centers in the world. Our experienced technicians are specially trained and prepared to help our donors, whose generous and compassionate contributions enable us to develop potential treatments. Grifols is also collecting convalescent plasma in Spain through a collaboration with blood banks.

We're also proud to be part of a coalition of world-class medical and research institutions, blood centers, life-science companies, philanthropic organizations and COVID-19 survivor groups that has come together to mobilize tens of thousands of people in the United States who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma. Visit TheFightIsInUs.org.