LONDON - Dexamethasone, a cheap and
widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able
to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what scientists hailed
as a "major breakthrough".
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.
The results suggest the drug should immediately become
standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic
disease, said the researchers who led the trials.
"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."
There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which has
killed more than 431,000 globally.
The recovery trial compared outcomes of around 2,100
patients who were randomly assigned to get the steroid, with
those of around 4,300 patients who did not get it.
The results suggest that one death would be prevented by
treatment with dexamethasone among every eight ventilated Covid-19 patients, Landray said, and one death would be
prevented among every 25 Covid-19 patients that received the
drug and are on oxygen.
Among patients with Covid-19 who did not require respiratory
support, there was no benefit from treatment with dexamethasone.
"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.
Nick Cammack, a expert on Covid-19 at the Wellcome Trust
global health charity, said the findings would "transform the
impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lives and economies across
the world".
"Countless lives will be saved globally," he said in a
statement responding to the results.
The recovery trial was launched in April as a randomised
clinical trial to test a range of potential treatments for Covid-19, including low-dose dexamethasone and the malaria drug
hydoxycholoroquine.
The hydroxychloroquine arm was halted earlier this month
after Horby and Landray said results showed it was "useless" at
treating Covid-19 patients.
Global cases of infection with the novel coronavirus have
reached over 8 million, according to a Reuters tally, and more
than 434,000 people have died after contracting the virus, the
first case if which was reported in China in early January.