Aria Diagnostics, Versiti Partner on COVID Efforts

Carmel-based Aria Diagnostic Laboratories is partnering with Versiti Blood
Center of Indiana to treat COVID-19 patients. Aria says the collaboration
will provide COVID-19 convalescent plasma to hospitals throughout the
Midwest.

Aria says the partnership unites its testing and logistics expertise with
the medical and scientific expertise of Versiti in transfusion medicine and
research.

“Reaching out to the people Aria has tested for COVID-19, who had positive
results, and asking them to donate their plasma, will help others who may
not be so lucky as to fully recover,” said Zak Khan, co-founder of Aria
Diagnostic Laboratories. “Our goal is to ask those people whom we have
tested in the past – and in the future – to volunteer to donate their
plasma, so Versiti can continue to provide this life-saving product to
hospitals to treat volumes more and offer these patients a chance to recover
faster.”

Since March, Aria says it has been testing hundreds of people for the
SARS-CoV-2 virus, and Versiti has been collecting plasma from donors who
have recovered from the disease since April. Aria says the work will now
assist in identifying and contacting potential new donors to help treat
others diagnosed with the virus.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an Investigational New
Drug, Aria says the blood-related treatment could offer hope to the hundreds
of patients who continue to be diagnosed and would be used by hospitals for
the most severely affected patients.

Versiti is working with its partner hospitals to identify recovered
patients, and Aria says donors would be referred to Versiti through the work
of its labs.

“The potential donors must first be proven to have had a COVID-19 diagnosis
through a positive lab test result, which Aria provides, and must be symptom
free for 14 days,” said Versiti Senior Medical Director Dr. Dan Waxman.
“It’s a very collaborative effort with our hospital partners who will be
working to identify and verify the donors.”

In April, Aria provided thousands of
<www.insideindianabusiness.com/story/42010437/nyc-taps-carmel-compan
y-to-acquire-test-kits> COVID-19 test kits to area municipalities and New
York City, as well as numerous companies and first responders.

Source: Inside Indiana Business

Photo courtesy of Aria Diagnostics