The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone becomes the first life-saving drug to fight against the deadly virus.
The RECOVERY trial was launched in April as a randomized clinical trial to test a range of potential treatments for Covid-19.
Photo source: BBC
According to CNBC, the results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital.
“This is a result that shows that if patients who have Covid-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost,” said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor co-leading the trial, known as the RECOVERY trial.
“It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life,” he told reporters in an online briefing.
His co-lead investigator, Peter Horby, said dexamethasone was “the only drug that’s so far shown to reduce mortality - and it reduces it significantly.”
“It is a major breakthrough,” he said. “Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”
In the vaccine trial which led by a team from Oxford University, around 2,100 patients were randomly assigned to get the steroid, with those of around 4,300 patients who did not get it. The results showed that the drug can cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators and for those on oxygen, it cuts deaths by a fifth.
“The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients,” Horby said.
The Covid-19 vaccine might receive emergency approval by early 2021.
