Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drug Intended To Ease Fatal Cytokine Storms Shown To Not Benefit Severely Ill Patients Who Aren't On Ventilators
Doctors around the world, trying to save seriously ill coronavirus patients, have been dosing them with rheumatoid arthritis drugs that can squelch immune responses. The theory was that many were dying because their immune systems went into overdrive, creating a fatal storm that attacked their lungs. But now, preliminary results on treatments with one of these drugs, sarilumab, marketed as Kevzara and made by Regeneron and Sanofi, indicate that it does not help patients who are hospitalized but not using ventilators. (Kolata, 4/27)
The study will continue, however, for an even sicker set of hospitalized Covid-19 patients who require the help of ventilators or other high-flow oxygen support, the companies said. In the second, sicker group of patients, the drug showed a relatively small potential benefit over placebo鈥攕ubstances with no actual pharmaceutical effect鈥攖hough that will need to be confirmed in the ongoing study, the companies said. Results are expected in June. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still hope it might help, but more modest than people hoped,鈥 Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer George D. Yancopoulos said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 look like the magic panacea that everyone would鈥檝e wanted for the pandemic.鈥 (Walker, 4/27)
Kevzara was not expected to directly block the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that is causing a global pandemic. But it was hoped that the drug would help ease the immune system鈥檚 overreaction to the virus 鈥 a 鈥渃ytokine storm鈥 that causes inflammation and fluid buildup in the lungs of many of the sickest patients 鈥 potentially helping to keep patients off of ventilators or saving their lives. Early data from a 21-patient study in China using Actemra had appeared promising. (Herper, 4/27)
For weeks, the world has been eagerly awaiting clinical trial results for one experimental drug, remdesivir, to treat Covid-19. On some days, the entire stock market has moved up and down based on limited amounts of data about the therapy from Gilead Sciences. The signals, so far, have been contradictory. (Herper and Feuerstein, 4/27)
