LONDON (Reuters) – Roche arthritis drug tocilizumab reduces the risk of death in hospitalized patients with true COVID-19, also shortens recovery time and reduces the need for mechanical ventilation , major test results showed Thursday.
The findings – from the RECOVERY trial, which has been testing a range of possible treatments for COVID-19 since March 2020 – should help clarify whether there is confusion. no benefit of tocilizumab for COVID-19 patients after recently reducing mixed test results.
“We now know that the benefits of tocilizumab extend to all COVID patients with low oxygen levels and severe inflammation,” said Peter Horby, an emerging professor of infectious diseases at Oxford University and lead review of the RECOVERY test.
In June last year, the RECOVERY trial found that the cheap and widely available steroid dexamethasone reduced mortality rates by about a third among the worst COVID-19 patients. Since then that drug has quickly become part of the recommended standard of care for pregnant patients.
Tocilizumab, sold under the brand name Actemra, is an intravenous anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibody drug used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It was added to the trial in April 2020 for patients with COVID-19 who required oxygen and had evidence of inflammation.
The study data were from 2,022 COVID-19 patients randomly assigned to receive tocilizumab with intravenous infusion and compared with 2,094 patients randomly assigned to routine care alone. Researchers reported that 82% of all patients were taking a systemic steroid such as dexamethasone.
Results showed that treatment with tocilizumab significantly reduced mortality – with 596 (29%) patients in the tocilizumab group dying within 28 days, compared with 694 (33%) patients in the usual care group.
This translates to an overall difference of 4% and means one extra life would be saved for every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, said Horby and his co-lead investigator Martin Landray.
They added that the benefits of tocilizumab were clearly seen in addition to the benefits of steroids.
“Taken together, the impact is huge,” said Landray, who is also a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford.
He said the results “clearly demonstrate the benefits of tocilizumab and dexamethasone in addressing the worst side effects of COVID-19 — improving survival, shortening hospital stays, and reducing need for mechanical ventilation. ”
Roche’s head of drug department Bill Anderson said last week that previously mixed results were likely due to differences in the type of patients examined, when they were treated, and the endpoint – the degree to which success or failure is measured.
“We think we’re kind of moving in on the most relevant endpoints and the relevant patient number,” Anderson said. “It seems that the right candidates are patients who are really in that hard stage of an infectious attack.”
Actemra, along with the Sanofi-like drug Kevzara, was approved by NHS Britain in early January for COVID-19 patients in intensive care units after initial data from a smaller study called REMAP-CAP revealed that it could reduce hospital stay by around 10 days.
Through 2020, Actemra rose to become Roche ‘s fifth preferred drug, at more than $ 3 billion, with nearly $ 600 million from COVID-19 treatment.
Reporting by Kate Kelland in LONDON, with additional commentary by John Miller in ZURICH. Edited by David Evans