Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department is providing for research into the potential merits of using therapeutic plasma in the treatment of patients with covid-19.

The Department invests £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR is prioritising clinical research activity on COVID-19 through its national prioritisation process for Urgent Public Health research. The REMAP-CAP trial is one of several studies that have been nationally prioritised. This is a platform clinical trial testing the effectiveness of multiple treatments on COVID-19 patients in intensive care. The NIHR is supporting prioritised studies such as REMAP-CAP to expedite their local set-up, management and delivery through the NIHR Clinical Research Network. As announced on 25 April, the Department is working in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant and the other United Kingdom blood services, Public Health England and NHS Digital to enable the testing of convalescent plasma through this trial. Details of funding for this will be made publicly available shortly.