Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche records new setback in clinical trial for covid drug tocilizumab -

GENEVAY / SIPA

Another setback for Roche.

The Swiss pharmaceutical group announced Thursday the failure of one of the trials on its drug tocilizumab.

The latter is evaluated in combination with the antiviral remdesivir from the Gilead Sciences laboratory, for patients with a severe form of Covid-19 pneumonia.

In Phase III trials in a study called Remdacta, this combination of treatments failed to meet its primary goal, Roche said in a statement.

The main objective of this trial was to assess the improvement in hospitalization time, from admission to hospital until discharge, after 28 days, the Swiss group said.

In this study, the drug combination also failed to meet its secondary objectives, added the Swiss laboratory, which plans to publish the details of these trials in a medical journal.

Still hope

"We are disappointed that the Remdacta study did not meet its objectives," said Levi Garraway, chief medical officer and director of global product development at Roche, quoted in the statement.

"We continue to believe that the data in their totality suggests a potential role for Actemra in the treatment of certain patients with Covid-19", he added, however, explaining that the laboratory will discuss the results with the authorities of health.

Marketed under the name Actemra or RoActemra depending on the markets where it is sold, tocilizumab is an immunomodulator used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Two other large trials had been launched to assess this drug as a potential lead in the range of treatments that doctors could use to treat patients with Covid-19.

While the study called Empacta achieved its primary objective, the third study, called Covacta, had also failed.

Their results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the leading medical publications.

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