Arthritis drugs save lives of hospitalised Covid-19 patients

Drugs used to treat arthritis, known as interleukin-6 antagonists, reduce deaths and the need for mechanical ventilation among people hospitalised with Covid-19, according to a new study involving UCL which has prompted new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. In the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association , researchers analysed 27 randomised trials involving nearly 11,000 patients. They found that treating hospitalised Covid-19 patients with drugs tocilizumab and sarilumab (the interleukin-6 antagonists) was most effective when administered with corticosteroids. The WHO now recommends the use of these drugs along with corticosteroids in patients with severe or critical Covid-19. One of the study's lead authors, Dr Claire Vale (MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL), said: "These results, which will lead to better outcomes for patients hospitalised with Covid-19, reflect a huge global effort. Bringing together this information in such a short space of time has only been possible thanks to the overwhelming commitment of all the doctors and teams who ran the trials, and of course, the patients who took part in them. "I hope these findings ensure that Covid-19 patients worldwide will benefit from these drugs." The study, which was coordinated by WHO, found that in hospitalised patients, administering either tocilizumab or sarilumab in addition to corticosteroids reduced the risk of death by 17%, compared to the use of corticosteroids alone. In patients not on mechanical ventilation, the risk of mechanical ventilation or death was reduced by 21%, compared to the use of corticosteroids alone.