LONDON (Reuters) – Treating COVID-19 critically ill patients with Roche’s Actemra or Sanvi Kevzara arthritis drugs significantly improves survival rates and reduces the time required by patients with intensive care, Thursday survey results.
The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, showed that the antidepressant drugs – Actemra, also known as tocilizumab, and Kevzara, also known as sarilumab – reduced mortality rates by 8.5 percentage points. among hospitalized patients and very severe infection with the pandemic. .
That would mean that for every 12 patients treated with one of the two drugs, extra lives would be saved, said Anthony Gordon, professor of anesthesia and emergency care at Imperial College London. -crew the study.
The data will boost confidence that some existing drugs could be re-injected to help with the pandemic that has killed more than 1.87 million people and crushed global economies.
It also comes as countries are struggling with two more susceptible and increased strains of the virus found in South Africa and Britain.
Drug companies have been scouring their existing records for potential treatments. To date the generic steroid dexamethasone steroid and antiviral drug remdesivir Gilead have been approved for the treatment of patients with severe symptoms.
The United States has also approved the emergency use of certain antibody drugs for non-hospital COVID-19 patients.
The data showed that from approximately 800 COVID-19 patients who were critically ill undergoing an international study called the REMAP-CAP test, both drugs reduced mortality rates from 35.8% in a control group to 27.3 % among patients receiving either tocilizumab or sarilumab.
“That’s a big change in survival,” said Gordon. “They are both life-saving drugs.”
The results also showed that, on average, patients treated with Actemra or Kevzara recovered more quickly and were able to be discharged from intensive care units in about seven to 10 days. earlier than those who did not receive these drugs, Gordon said.
“This … could have an immediate impact on the sickest patients with COVID-19,” he said. “We see the real benefit in terms of surviving and overcoming faster.”
To date, results for Actemra and Kevzara – both types of drugs known as IL-6 receptor antagonists – in treatment trials in patients with COVID-19 have been mixed.
Sanofi said in September that Kevzara – who he does with partner Regeneron – did not meet the main goals of a U.S. study testing him in patients with severe COVID-19 dementia.
In November, Roche said research showed that Actemra helped the sickest COVID-19 patients, but it was unclear whether it kept people alive or shortened how long it took. they are intensive care support such as mechanical ventilation, or both.
Gordon noted on Thursday that previous studies had not found a clear benefit, but said those trials had included patients who were less severe and began treatment at different stages of the course of the disease. .
“Perhaps an important difference in our study was that patients with very severe disease were registered within 24 hours of starting organ support,” he said. “This shows a potential early window for treatment where the sickest patients get the most out of immune modeling treatment. ”
Thursday’s test data have not yet been peer-reviewed but have been published online on the medRxiv website.
Reporting by Kate Kelland, edited by Andrew Heavens