Efficacy of Tocilizumab in Patients Hospitalized with Covid-19.

N Engl J Med

From Massachusetts General Hospital (J.H.S., M.J.F., N.J.S.-B., A.D.F., L.H., A.S.F., N.K.H., B.C.H., C.A.S., M.D., C.M.N., Y.-D.H., T.K.T., Z.D., A.S., R.S.W., A.Y.K., S.S., P.S., T.G.N., C.A.P., S.H.U., D.S.C., M.A.M., J.M.Y., K.A.B., E.M., A.Z., Z.D.D., M.B.B., M.K., K.M.D., J.D., M.M.L., M.K.M.), Brigham and Women's Hospital (A.E.W., S.N., B.N.W.), and Boston Medical Center (N.L., M.S.), Boston, North Shore Medical Center, Salem (R.S., A.M.B., C.C.), Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton (H.S., D.S.H.), Beth Israel Lahey Health, Burlington (M.A., M.D.P.), and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Brighton (J.F.) - all in Massachusetts.

Published: December 2020

Background: The efficacy of interleukin-6 receptor blockade in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) who are not receiving mechanical ventilation is unclear.

Methods: We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving patients with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, hyperinflammatory states, and at least two of the following signs: fever (body temperature >38°C), pulmonary infiltrates, or the need for supplemental oxygen in order to maintain an oxygen saturation greater than 92%. Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive standard care plus a single dose of either tocilizumab (8 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo. The primary outcome was intubation or death, assessed in a time-to-event analysis. The secondary efficacy outcomes were clinical worsening and discontinuation of supplemental oxygen among patients who had been receiving it at baseline, both assessed in time-to-event analyses.

Results: We enrolled 243 patients; 141 (58%) were men, and 102 (42%) were women. The median age was 59.8 years (range, 21.7 to 85.4), and 45% of the patients were Hispanic or Latino. The hazard ratio for intubation or death in the tocilizumab group as compared with the placebo group was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.38 to 1.81; P = 0.64), and the hazard ratio for disease worsening was 1.11 (95% CI, 0.59 to 2.10; P = 0.73). At 14 days, 18.0% of the patients in the tocilizumab group and 14.9% of the patients in the placebo group had had worsening of disease. The median time to discontinuation of supplemental oxygen was 5.0 days (95% CI, 3.8 to 7.6) in the tocilizumab group and 4.9 days (95% CI, 3.8 to 7.8) in the placebo group (P = 0.69). At 14 days, 24.6% of the patients in the tocilizumab group and 21.2% of the patients in the placebo group were still receiving supplemental oxygen. Patients who received tocilizumab had fewer serious infections than patients who received placebo.

Conclusions: Tocilizumab was not effective for preventing intubation or death in moderately ill hospitalized patients with Covid-19. Some benefit or harm cannot be ruled out, however, because the confidence intervals for efficacy comparisons were wide. (Funded by Genentech; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04356937.).

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7646626PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2028836DOI Listing

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