UK Adopts Arthritis Drugs as Treatments for Severe COVID-19 Patients

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) will begin treating adult COVID-19 patients in intensive care with Roche’s and Sanofi’s arthritis medications following positive trial results that showed the drugs were highly effective when given early enough.

The UK government is now encouraging the use of Roche’s Actemra (tocilizumab) and Sanofi’s Kevzara (sarilumab) for adults with COVID-19 who have been placed in intensive care units (ICUs), the Department of Health and Social Care said.

“Patients receiving these drugs, typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, left intensive care between seven to 10 days earlier on average,” the department said. “The rollout of these treatments could therefore contribute significantly toward reducing pressures on hospitals over the coming weeks and months.”

The UK decided to begin using the treatments for severe COVID-19 following encouraging results from the Imperial College London’s (ICL) REMAP-CAP trial, which found that the two monoclonal antibody drugs reduced the relative risk of death by an impressive 24 percent when given within a day of patients entering intensive care. The drugs were mostly administered alongside a corticosteroid, such as dexamethasone, which is the NHS standard of care for COVID-19 patients. ICL trial results for these drugs, which were published in medRxiv, still need to be peer-reviewed.

“This is a significant finding which could have immediate implications for the sickest patients with COVID-19,” said Anthony Gordon, ICL’s chair in anesthesia and critical care. “We found that among critically ill adult patients — those receiving breathing support in intensive care — treatment with these drugs can improve their chances of survival and recovery.”

The researchers initially found in November that Actemra was likely to improve outcomes for critical COVID-19 patients, but the level of effect it had on survival and time on ICU support wasn’t clear at the time. The latest findings show that both Actemra and Kevzara significantly helped patients to survive COVID-19, with both providing an 8.5 percent reduction in mortality.

The government said that hospitals across the UK are already stocked with enough Actemra to treat all ICU patients, and it is working with Roche to ensure the arthritis drug remains available. Both Actemra and Kevzara are on the government’s export restriction list.

Read the ICL trial results here: bit.ly/3hWEGJi. — James Miessler