A clinical trial published this Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, would have demonstrated its effectiveness in the fight against severe forms of Covid.
This cachet, sold among others under the Xeljanz brand produced by Pfizer, has been tested on 289 patients hospitalized with severe forms of Covid, across 15 sites in Brazil.
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Half of them received the drug authorized in the United States to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis and conventional care, the other half a placebo and treatment.
Initial "encouraging" results
After 28 days, 18.1% of group members who received treatment developed respiratory failure which usually required intubation or ventilation.
In the placebo group, the deficiencies increased to 29%.
In total, some 5.5% of the members of the placebo group died compared to 2.8% of the patients taking tofacitinib.
Results qualified as encouraging.
"We are encouraged by the first results of our randomized trial of tofacitinib in patients hospitalized with Covid-19 pneumonia," explained Otavio Berwanger of the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital, who conducted the clinical trial, in partnership with Pfizer.
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