The WHO has recommended using arthritis drugs Actemra from Roche and Kevzara from Sanofi with corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients.
This recommendation comes after data from 11,000 patients showed that the drugs cut the risk of death.
As reported in Reuters, a WHO group evaluating therapies concluded treating severe and critical COVID patients with these treatments, interleukin-6 antagonists, that block inflammation “reduces the risk of death and the need for mechanical ventilation”.
According to the WHO analysis, the risk of dying within 28 days for patients getting one of the arthritis drugs with corticosteroids such as dexamethasone is 21%, compared with an assumed 25% risk among those who got standard care. For every 100 such patients, four more will survive, the WHO said.
Moreover, the risk of progressing to mechanical ventilation or death was 26% for those getting the drugs and corticosteroids, compared with 33% in those getting standard care. The WHO said that meant for every 100 such patients, seven more will survive without mechanical ventilation.
Janet Diaz, WHO Health Emergencies official, said: “We have updated our clinical care treatment guidance to reflect this latest development.”
The analysis covered 10,930 patients, 6,449 of whom got one of the drugs and 4,481 got standard care or a placebo.
Roche has been urged by experts to lower the price of the drug to make it more accessible and affordable for the rest of the world.
Julien Potet, Neglected Tropical Diseases Policy Advisor at MSF’s Access Campaign, said: “Medical practitioners in many countries in Africa and Latin America, who are grappling with newer and more transmissible variants of coronavirus, are right now struggling to keep their patients alive.
“This drug could become essential for treating people with critical and severe cases of COVID-19 and reduce the need for ventilators and medical oxygen which are scarce resources in many places.
“Roche must stop following a business-as-usual approach and take urgent steps to make this drug accessible and affordable for everyone who needs it by reducing the price and transferring the technology, know-how and cell lines to other manufacturers.
“Too many lives are at stake.”
If steps are not taken, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world could be facing a “two-track pandemic”.
Lilly Subbotin
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