Rheumatoid arthritis drug reduces the risk of death for seriously ill Covid-19 patients, researchers say

Rheumatoid arthritis drug reduces the risk of death for seriously ill Covid-19 patients, researchers say

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The preliminary results come from the RECOVERY trial, which has been testing potential Covid-19 treatments since March 2020. Tocilizumab was added to the trial in April 2020. The results were shared in a pre-print, but have not yet been peer-reviewed or published. in a medical journal.

For the trial, 2022 patients were randomly assigned tocilizumab and compared with 2094 patients who received standard care.

“There were 596 deaths among the people in the tocilizumab group, 29%, and there were 694 deaths, 33%, in the regular care group. This is therefore a reduction in the risk of deaths of about one-sixth or a seventh, “Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Division of Population Health at the University of Oxford, and deputy principal investigator of the RECOVERY trial, said during an information session on Thursday.

“An absolute difference of four out of a hundred,” Landray said. “You have to treat about 25 patients to save one patient, one life.”

Landray said the benefits are consistent in each group of patients studied.

It was also shown that the drug has an advantage for people who had no mechanical ventilation at the beginning of the trial; the risk of progressing to mechanical ventilation or death decreases from 38% to 33%.

The benefits of the treatment were in addition to those of steroids such as dexamethasone – 82% of the patients received one of these steroids.

“The data suggest that treatment with the combination of systemic corticosteroid (such as dexamethasone) plus tocilizumab in Covid-19 patients with hypoxia (significant oxygen) and tocilizumab reduces mortality by approximately one third for patients requiring simple oxygen and almost half those who need penetrating mechanical ventilation, ”reads a press release from the University of Oxford.

“It’s a comprehensive treatment that reduces mortality, shortens hospital stays and reduces the chances of people needing invasive mechanical ventilators,” Landray said. “It’s good for patients, it’s good for healthcare. And it’s not only good for healthcare and patients here in the UK, but also internationally.”

On February 3, a panel of National Institutes of Health released treatment guidelines telling patients in the intensive care unit: “There are insufficient data to recommend for or against the use of tocilizumab or sarilumab for the treatment of Covid-19. . ” Sarilumab is a similar treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. For those who do not require ICU level, the panel recommended that the medicine not be used except in a clinical trial.

Landray noted that many of the earlier trials were smaller and that the results were not clear.

“Until these results of RECOVERY, it was unconvincing,” he said, even in other major trials, such as REMAP-CAP. When the results of REPAIR are added on top of others, it becomes quite clear.

The national health service has a large number of patients who could contribute to the trials, ‘so you get really clear answers and then you get certainty where there has never been one.’

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