INTERVIEW
A drug that turns into hope. According to the first results of a study carried out by the AP-HP on 129 patients seriously affected by Covid-19, tocilizumab would have reduced "significantly" the proportion of patients who had to be transferred to intensive care, ie 65 people. Usually used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, it would decrease the inflammation of the immune system, caused by the virus. Professor Odile Launay, infectious disease specialist and head of the Cochin hospital vaccination center in Paris, deciphers these results on Europe 1.
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Results to be specified
"These are very important results, for the first time we have results which show that a drug could prevent the degradation of patients, their passage in intensive care and their death", affirms the infectiologist. "It is a drug which acts on the second phase of the infection, that is to say the phase where the immune response is in excess and deleterious." The molecule will indeed block the action of certain substances, produced by the immune system, which had an unfavorable effect on the evolution of the patient's state of health.
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Professor Odile Launay insists on the precocity of these results, which are still incomplete. "We now need to have the detail of the effect that this drug produces to better know on the one hand which patients are benefiting from it, and on the other hand the importance of the effect obtained with this treatment" , emphasizes the infectious disease specialist. The results are only known for 14 days after the start of treatment. It also remains to be determined whether the positive effect of tocilizumab continues after one month.
A drug that acts on the consequences of Covid-19
"It is not a drug that acts on the virus but a drug that acts on its consequences, and on the immune response," said Odile Launay. "Before considering using this drug, it was necessary to have a certain amount of knowledge about the mechanism involved in this specific infection." To collect this information, the researchers used data on the virus and its effects around the world, especially in China.
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If the effects are not yet fully proven, and the results will have to be published soon in a scientific journal, tocilizumab remains expensive. It takes around 800 euros per injection. But the infectious disease specialist sweeps the issue out of hand. "Compared to the cost of a day of resuscitation, it is not this argument that will be the most important".