Anti-inflammatory baricitinib is a life-saving COVID-19 drug
pharmafile | March 4, 2022 | News story | Medical Communications |
UK experts say they have identified another life-saving drug that can alleviate COVID-19 illness. The anti-inflammatory baricitinib is usually used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Research has shown that the drug can cut death risk by approximately a fifth in patients needing hospital care for severe COVID-19. It can also be used alongside other treatments for COVID-19, including cheap steroid dexamethasone. Researchers have said that this may have the potential to halve deaths. However, when the impact of other medications used alongside this drug are also taken into account, the risk of death can likely be lowered by over 50%.
According to The Guardian, Professor Sir Martin Landray, a joint chief investigator of the trial at the University of Oxford, commented: “What we have now is a suite of drugs which tackle the immune system at different levels, and slightly different ways, which depending on the patient and their circumstances, and their other illnesses and so on, can be used either alone or in combination and further reduce the risk of death.”
Recovery trial joint chief investigator Sir Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology, at Oxford Population Health, remarked: “It is now well established that in people admitted to hospital because of severe COVID-19, an overactive immune response is a key driver of lung damage.
“Today’s results not only show that treatment with baricitinib improves the chances of survival for patients with severe COVID-19 but that this benefit is additional to that from other treatments that dampen down the overactive immune response, such as dexamethasone and tocilizumab.
“This opens up the possibility of using combinations of anti-inflammatory drugs to further drive down the risk of death for some of the sickest patients.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “A big thank you to all of the researchers, doctors and volunteers involved in this work.
“Our medical and scientific experts will now consider the results before any decisions are made on next steps.”
