Treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with arthritis drugs tocilizumab and sarilumab significantly improves survival rates and reduces the amount of time patients need intensive care.
The immunosuppressive drugs, Actemra, also known as tocilizumab, and Kevzara, also known as sarilumab, reduced death rates by 8.5 percentage points among patients hospitalised and severely ill with the pandemic disease.
Among hospitalised Covid patients, administering one of the drugs in addition to corticosteroids reduced the risk of death by 17 percent, compared to the use of corticosteroids alone.
In patients who were not on ventilators, the risk of progressing to mechanical ventilation or death was reduced by 21 percent, compared to the use of corticosteroids alone.
Severely ill COVID patients experience an immune system overreaction known as a “cytokine storm” that can cause severe organ damage and death.
Tocilizumab and sarilumab are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune condition, by inhibiting the effects of interleukin (IL)-6, a type of protein called a cytokine that signals the body to mount an inflammatory response.
But previous research on whether IL-6 inhibitors can be useful against severe COVID have variously reported benefit, no effect, and harm.
This prompted the WHO to coordinate the new study that combined data from 27 randomized trials conducted across 28 countries.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association