Prognosis
Roche’s Actemra May Curb Deaths in Critical Covid Patients
- Study suggests drug could help ICU patients survive infection
- Results conflict with other reports, showing more study is key
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Roche Holding AG’s Actemra may help critically ill patients survive Covid-19, according to researchers who used a novel approach to show those who quickly got the anti-inflammatory medication were 30% less likely to die.
The observational study should trigger further investigation of the drug, which is already used for other conditions to calm an overactive immune system, the researchers said in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. It has been widely hoped that the treatment would help people having an excessive response to a coronavirus infection.