Arthritis drug slashes Covid death rates and speeds up recovery, study shows

Thousands more Covid patients hospitalised across the NHS are set to receive the life-saving drug tocilizumab, following today’s results from the RECOVERY Trial.

“Roughly half of the patients who are in hospital with Covid would benefit from this treatment,” Prof Martin Landray, joint chief investigator of the trial, told Reaction.

In the large-scale study, run by Oxford University, over 4000 patients received the immunosuppressive drug, generally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Results suggested that tocilizumab could save one life for every 25 Covid patients on oxygen when used in addition to dexamethasone, a cheap steroid.

Hospitalised patients given the drug “will be less likely to die but also less likely to need a mechanical ventilator,” says Prof Landray.

The RECOVERY Trial data follows results from last month’s smaller clinical trial run by REMAP-CAP which found that tocilizumab reduced the risk of death by 24 per cent when given to patients within 24 hours of entering intensive care.

Yet despite January’s promising trial, the scale of this new study has “really nailed the answer that this drug works,” says Prof Landray.

Just as crucially, while the REMAP-CAP trial focused on patients in intensive care, the new trial shows that patients in earlier stages of the disease with oxygen deficiency could be given the drug to stop their condition deteriorating.

“The new data has shown there is benefit for less severely ill patients in general wards in the hospital,” says Dr Nick Cammack, Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator Lead at Wellcome.

Administering the drug at an earlier stage could prevent patients from entering intensive care and significantly ease pressure on hospitals.

Approximately 4,000 critically ill patients across the UK have already been treated with tocilizumab since January. But a greater number are now set to benefit from the drug.

“The data [on tocilizumab] published today means many more patients in hospital with COVID-19 will have access to a proven treatment, speeding up their recovery and reducing the risk of mortality significantly,” says Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer.

The government is working closely with the manufacturer Roche to ensure the drug is available across NHS healthcare settings.

And Prof Landray says the rest of the world would be wise to pay attention to these new findings: “This truly is global leadership. We’re fixing our own problem and giving information to the rest of the world.”