19 november 2020
16:13
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The immunosuppressant tocilizumab has been shown to shorten the hospital stay and ventilation period of covid patients in intensive care.
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This is evident from the first results of a worldwide study of various immune inhibitors in 300 patients in 260 hospitals. Critically ill Covid-19 patients treated with the anti-inflammatory tocilizumab are almost twice as likely to have a better course of their disease than patients who do not receive the drug.
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Tocilimuzab fights a typical reaction that often occurs in patients with severe Covid-19. They have a severe overreaction of the immune system, causing serious infections throughout the body.
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The researchers are not yet able to say how much less death there is in the group that received tocilizumab and the control group that did not. It is also not yet clear how much shorter the patients in the tocilizumab group were on intensive care and on devices that took over their vital functions.
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Tocilizumab is a medicine for rheumatic diseases. It is the second drug proven to be effective against Covid-19. It was previously established that the anti-inflammatory dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, significantly improves the clinical picture of patients.
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The study, whose first results have been announced, is part of a large international study in eight Dutch hospitals, 48 hospitals in 15 other European countries and an additional 200 hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada. UMC Utrecht coordinates the European part of the study, which is led by Imperial College London.
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