RECOVERY Trial Data Shows Roche Arthritis Drug Cuts Deaths in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients
Roche’s arthritis drug tocilizumab
cuts the risk of death among patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19,
also shortening the time to recovery and reducing the need for mechanical ventilation, according to results published last Thursday.
The findings
— from the U.K.-based RECOVERY trial, which has been testing a range of potential treatments for COVID-19 since March 2020 —
should help clear up confusion about whether tocilizumab has any benefit for COVID-19 patients after a slew of recent mixed trial results.
Tocilizumab reduces deaths in patients hospitalised with COVID-19
The RECOVERY trial
has been testing a range of potential treatments for COVID-19 since March 2020.
Tocilizumab, an intravenous drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis,
was added to the trial in April 2020 for patients with COVID-19 who required oxygen and had evidence of inflammation.
Recruitment to the tocilizumab arm stopped on 24 January 2021 since, in the view of the trial Steering Committee,
sufficient patients had been enrolled to establish whether or not the drug had a meaningful benefit.
A total of 2022 patients were randomly allocated to receive tocilizumab by intravenous infusion and were compared with 2094 patients randomly allocated to usual care alone.
82% of patients were taking a systemic steroid such as dexamethasone.
Treatment with tocilizumab
significantly reduced deaths: 596 (29%) of the patients in the tocilizumab group died within 28 days compared with 694 (33%) patients in the usual care group (rate ratio 0·86; [95% confidence interval [CI] 0·77 to 0·96]; p=0·007),
an absolute difference of 4%.
This means that for every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, one additional life would be saved.
RECOVERY Trial
https://www.recoverytrial.net/news/tocilizumab-reduces-deaths-in-patients-hospitalised-with-covid-19