Duterte talked about 'horse antibodies' vs COVID-19. What's that about?

In his press conference on Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte suddenly mentioned horses.

"Doon sa patay, kunan mo ng dugo niya, i-inject mo doon sa kabayo," he said. "Wag naman bigla kasi magka-COVID talaga, biktima 'yan. Dahan-dahan lang hanggang ma-immune. 'Pag marami nang antibodies 'yung kabayo, doon na kunin 'yung maraming [antibodies]."

Duterte may have been talking about a possible treatment for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

While there is no medicine available at present, doctors around the world have been trying several methods to cure COVID-19 patients.

One of them is convalescent plasma transfusion or plasma therapy, which uses the antibodies from the blood of a recovered patient to help another fight the disease.

READ: Who can donate blood to COVID-19 patients?

However, human blood only gives a limited supply of antibodies, according to a report from Time Magazine.

"Each recovered donor has different levels of antibodies that target SARS-CoV-2, so collecting enough can be a problem, especially if the need continues to surge during an ongoing pandemic," the report said.

SARS-CoV-2 is the official name of the virus that causes COVID-19.

According to the Time report, one unit of plasma from a human donor can treat one patient.

READ: PGH calls for blood donation from COVID-19 survivors

This is where the horses can come in.

Emergent BioSolutions, a pharmaceutical company based in Maryland, United States, has turned to horses as a source of plasma.

Laura Saward, the head of the company's therapeutic business unit, told Time that the horses' size makes them ideal donors.

When scientists used plasma from horses to produce treatments for a bacterial infection called botulism, they found that the volume of plasma horses produce could treat more than one patient.

Plasma from horses may also have a higher concentration of antibodies.

"The thought is that a smaller dose of equine plasma would be effective in people because there would be higher levels of antibody in smaller doses," Saward said.

In a statement, Emergent said that the plasma of immunized horses with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can be developed as a potential treatment for critically ill patients.

The company expects its equine plasma ready for testing in people by the end of summer in the US around September.

As of Thursday, April 16, nearly two million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded globally. Over 130,000 have died from the disease. --MGP, GMA News