Arthritis drug reduces death, length of stay in hospitalized COVID patients, study says
A study of more than 4,000 hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 found that an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, combined with a steroid treatment, reduces risk of death by about one third for people requiring “simple” oxygen and by nearly half for those needing invasive mechanical ventilation.
The drug, called tocilizumab, also shortened the amount of time spent in the hospital and minimized the need for breathing help with machines.
Put another way, for every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, one additional life could be saved, according to the U.K.-based study called RECOVERY. It’s the same trial that revealed the inexpensive and widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced death for patients with severe COVID-19 in June.
“After I was given tocilizumab, my condition stabilized and I didn’t get any worse. Up until then, it was quite scary as I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not,” said Wendy Coleman, 62, a participant in the RECOVERY trial in England who was on the verge of being admitted to an intensive care unit when her bout with COVID-19 made it hard for her to breathe.
“You never think about clinical trials, until you are in need of these treatments and then you realize what happens behind the scenes to find out if they work,” Coleman said, according to the report on the trial released Thursday.
The arthritis drug was inserted through the veins of 2,022 randomly assigned hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19, most of whom were simultaneously treated with dexamethasone. They were compared to 2,094 patients who were randomly chosen to receive “usual care alone.”
Treatment with tocilizumab and dexamethasone “significantly reduced deaths,” with 596 patients (29%) in the experimental group receiving the new combo of drugs dying within 28 days compared to 694 patients (33%) in the control group that didn’t get the new treatment.
The drug combo also increased the likelihood of being discharged within about a month from 47% to 54%, according to the report.
The researchers said these survival benefits were seen across all patient subgroups, including those needing oxygen via a “simple face mask” and individuals requiring mechanical ventilation.
Treatment with tocilizumab helped patients who didn’t need ventilation when they joined the trial reduce their chances of progressing to ventilation or death from 38% to 33%. At the same time, the drug combo didn’t appear to help those using breathing machines improve enough to get off it.
Researchers began testing the arthritis drug in COVID-19 patients in April, a month after RECOVERY was established to test a range of potential treatments for the disease. Over 35,000 patients from the U.K. have been enrolled.
The trial is currently investigating whether the common blood thinner aspirin and an antibody cocktail prove to be beneficial COVID-19 treatments, among other anti-inflammatory drugs.
The study’s complete data have not been released yet, according to STAT, but the researchers said they expect their data to be published in a non-peer reviewed journal soon.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Arthritis drug reduces death, length of stay in hospitalized COVID patients, study says."
