Any good news on the research front? While clinical trials have multiplied in France and around the world in a few weeks, the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) has decided to make public the preliminary results of a study, which is not yet published and which still deserves some further study. However, these initial conclusions show the effectiveness of a drug called tocilizumab (Actemra or RoActemra) to prevent an exaggerated immune system reaction in certain serious Covid-19 patients. This reaction, called "cytokine storm", was explained in this paper.
Fewer deceased or intensive care patients
This treatment reduced "significantly" the proportion of patients who had to be transferred to intensive care or died, compared to those who received standard treatment, said the Assistance Publique-Hôpital de Paris (AP-HP) in a press release. This is the "first randomized controlled trial" which "demonstrates a clinical benefit" of this treatment in Covid patients with severe infection.
These results have yet to be "consolidated" and will be published in a scientific journal in a few weeks. Usually used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, it works by blocking the receptor of a protein of the immune system which plays an important role in the inflammatory process.
A rare but serious reaction
This profile corresponds "only to 5% to 10% of patients infected" by the coronavirus, but they are among those who are most at risk of being placed on artificial respiration or dying, said Xavier Mariette, co-investigator study coordinator, during the conference call.
129 people hospitalized in 13 hospitals were included in the study: Covid patients suffering from "moderate to severe" pneumonia who needed oxygen assistance. But who were not in intensive care. A total of 65 of these patients received the usual treatment + tocilizumab and 64 only the standard treatment. They were then followed for fourteen days to obtain these intermediate results, a follow-up which will continue to confirm the conclusions. At this stage, the researchers did not observe more undesirable side effects in patients who received the immunomodulator than in those who received standard treatment, underlined Xavier Mariette.
Other encouraging studies
Other teams have already reported encouraging results concerning tocilizumab, at Foch hospital in particular, but these were "open" studies, without a control group drawn at random, which bring "not the same level of evidence "and" do not allow to define a standard of treatment ", underlined the researchers of the AP-HP. The current cost of tocilizumab is around 800 euros per injection, a high price but much lower than that of a day of hospitalization in an intensive care unit, they said.
A comparable drug, sarilumab (Kevzara), developed by Sanofi and Regeneron is also being tested in the same clinical trial program, called CORIMMUNO, and the first results should be known "within the next few days", according to Xavier Mariette .
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