A second study this week has demonstrated a new Covid-19 treatment that can reduce deaths in patients suffering from the most severe symptoms of the virus.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) said almost 40% fewer patients (18%) treated with Xeljanz, an oral rheumatoid arthritis drug, died in the study compared with those given a placebo (29%).
The study was carried out over 28 days in a hospital in Sao Paolo, Brazil on people suffering severe respiratory failure due to Covid-19.
Xeljanz or tofacitinib is a new kind of drug known as a JAK inhibitor, that is being used to boost immune responses in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.
As yet, tofacitinib has not been approved to treat Covid-19 in any country and comes with a number of warnings about potential side effects.
“We are encouraged by the initial findings of our randomized trial of tofacitinib in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia," said Otavio Berwanger, Director of the Academic Research Organization, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.
"These results provide new information which indicates that the use of tofacitinib when added to standard of care, which includes glucocorticoids, may further reduce the risk of death or respiratory failure in this patient population,”
Tamas Koncz, Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Inflammation & Immunology. added: “To effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a critical need for multiple therapeutic options to treat patients who have contracted the virus,” said
Earlier this week, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) said its antibody cocktail cuts the risk of death when given to patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19 that haven’t built an immune response to the virus.
The treatment uses a combination of two monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab, that bind to two different sites on the coronavirus spike protein, neutralising the ability of the virus to infect cells.
Researchers at the University of Oxford analysed the drug on 9,785 patients already in hospital as part of the wider RECOVERY trial, which has been investigating potential treatment for COVID-19.
It cut the chances of dying by one-fifth compared with those receiving usual care alone, so 24% of patients who received the therapy died compared to 30% of those who hadn’t.