BENGALURU: A city based private hospital has been given the nod by Indian Council of Medical Research to conduct clinical trials on COVID-19 patients using plasma therapy This was stated by the Drugs Controller General of India in a letter to to HCG Bangalore Institute of Oncology Speciality Centre.The permission was granted on Monday under the provisions of New Drugs and Clinical Trial Rules, 2019."Grant of permission given to conduct clinical study in India entitled "Open label, parallel arm, Phase I/II Clinical Trial to evaluate safety and efficacy of Convalescent plasma as therapy for COVID-19 Severe SARS-Cov-2 Disease," DCGI Dr V G Somani said in the letter.Sharing the letter on his Twitter handle, the Minister for Medical Education, Dr K Sudhakar, who himself is a medical professional, wrote, "Plasma therapy holds great promise in treating Covid-19 patients and I am happy to inform ICMR agreed to our request and has given permission for plasma treatment to Dr. Vishal Rao, HCG Bangalore Inst of Oncology."Sudhakar tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah , BJP national president J P Nadda and Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa while sharing the information.