Sign of hope for the treatment of patients with Covid-19. According to initial results of a clinical trial conducted in 13 hospitals in France and coordinated by the AP-HP and Inserm, patients with a severe or severe form of Covid-19 are more likely to survival while taking tocilizumab.
This medication is usually used to decrease inflammation for certain illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis. It is already prescribed to 10,000 people suffering from this inflammatory disease. However, doctors believe that the condition of patients with Covid-19 worsens during a "cytokine storm", that is to say when the production of cytokines, natural molecules of our immune system, s 'packed up. And tocilizumab could block such a phenomenon.
129 patients with Covid-19 were involved in this clinical trial. All were hospitalized and on oxygen. It is therefore a small part of all people infected with the coronavirus. These patients were recruited from March 27 and within a short period of ten days. 65 of them received the usual treatment associated with tocilizumab, the other 64 received the only usual treatment.
"Significant decrease" of the most serious cases
Scientists have evaluated the percentage of patients with Covid-19 who have gone into intensive care or died. This rate "has dropped significantly" in those who took tocilizumab, said Prof. Olivier Hermine, hematologist at Necker-Sick Children Hospital and coordinator of this trial called Corimuno-19, during an organized videoconference this Monday afternoon.
We will not know any more for the moment, while waiting for publication in a medical journal and for the results to be validated by peers. The deadline is usually "three months" but, in the current pandemic context, this deadline can increase to "a few weeks", according to the head of the immuno-rheumatology department at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital, Hervé Mariette, also the study coordinator.
No generalization of treatment for the moment
In the meantime, the medical team has deemed these results to be comprehensive and interesting enough to reveal a summary, notably for "ethical" reasons. French health authorities and the World Health Organization, in particular, were also alerted.
However, doctors cannot decide on their own to prescribe this treatment to all patients infected with the coronavirus. "The redefinition of the standard of care does not depend on us, the authorities will make these decisions," they insist in unison. As for the cost of this treatment, it is today 1,500 euros per patient for two infusions. But it avoids the much higher costs of resuscitation care.
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