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- Two new ‘life-saving’ treatments can now be used in UK hospitals, according to a preliminary study, as they reduce the risk of death by 24% in people with severe coronavirus.
- Anti-inflammatory drugs commonly used for arthritis, tocilizumab and sarilumab, can reduce hospital stays by 10 days, the UK government said Thursday.
- Treatments have not been tested on people with coronavirus in normal hospital wards or in the community.
- “Ultimately, while I have some concerns about the details of this study, if I was in intensive care with COVID, I would definitely want my doctors to give me tocilizumab now that I have read this article,” Premier Research director of biostatistics Adam Jacobs said.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Critically ill patients with COVID-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – can be treated with two potentially “life-saving” drugs commonly used for rheumatoid arthritis, the UK government said Thursday
Both tocilizumab and sarilumab reduced the likelihood of dying from COVID-19 in people treated with the drugs by 24%, compared to those who were not. They also spent 10 days less in hospital, according to a government-funded study, the REMAP-CAP trial, which has not been peer-reviewed or published.
The study received £ 1.2million in government support from the UK government.
“Data shows that tocilizumab, and possibly sarilumab, accelerates and improves the chances of recovery in intensive care, which is crucial to help relieve pressure on intensive care and hospitals and save lives,” said the Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom, in a statement Thursday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement Thursday that it was a “historic development” that would save “hundreds of lives.”
NHS clinicians can treat intensive care unit patients with the drugs as early as Friday, as there are already supplies of tocilizumab in UK hospitals, the UK government said in the statement.
Both tocilizumab and sarilumab are injected into the veins and given in combination with dexamethasone, a steroid treatment that is the usual treatment for people with COVID-19 who need oxygen. Dexamethasone is the “breakthrough” treatment, which has been shown to reduce the likelihood of dying from COVID-19 in June.
The treatments are believed to work because they suppress the additional immune response seen in many patients with COVID-19 who become seriously ill, Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a released statement. Thursday by Insider. .
Tocilizumab and sarilumab cost more than dexamethasone, with an indicative NHS drug cost of around £ 912 for each pre-filled injection, according to the British National Formulary. Dexamethasone costs around £ 20 per vial.
Professor Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, said the results of the REMAP-CAP trial are good news but there are still unanswered questions.
It is not known whether these treatments work in people with early stage disease in hospital wards or in the community. Studies such as the RECOVERY trial are underway to see if they could be used to prevent people from needing ventilators, for example.
“Exactly how well does tocilizumab work in different types of patients?” Landray said Thursday in a statement seen by Insider.
The REMAP-CAP study has not been peer reviewed, which means that the author’s numbering has not been reviewed by experts.
Professor Evans said the trial was “of high quality”.
Dr Adam Jacobs, director of biostatistics at Premier Research, said in a statement seen by Insider on Thursday that the complex methods required peer review. Researchers measure the success of the drug using a score that combines “mortality” and “number of days without organ support,” for example. Jacobs said these are not comparable.
“Mortality is clearly much more important than an extra day of organ support,” he said.
There were also only a small number of patients treated with sarilumab, Jacobs said. This means that there is some risk that the results suggesting that treatment with sarilumab is better than not giving it could be due to chance. Jacobs said tocilizumab has been given to more patients, however, and appears to be working.
“There is an absolute risk difference of 8% between tocilizumab and the control treatment. This means that if you gave it to 100 people in intensive care infected with Covid, you would expect eight of them to survive more than they otherwise would have ”. he said.
“The magnitude of the effect of tocilizumab does not make it a miracle cure, but certainly makes it enough to be clearly useful,” he added.
The Department of Health and Social Affairs told Insider on Friday that tocilizumab and sarilumab had been recommended to clinicians.
“At the end of the day, while I have some concerns about the details of this study, if I was in intensive care with Covid, I would definitely want my doctors to give me tocilizumab now that I’ve read this article,” Jacobs said.
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