A handful of studies on whether the rheumatoid arthritis drug tocilizumab provides clinically meaningful benefit for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with pneumonia have produced conflicting data. The medicine - sold as Actemra by Swiss drugmaker Roche - helps control IL-6. Because the life-threatening lung problems in severe COVID-19 are thought to be related to the immune system's inflammatory response to the virus, and because Chinese doctors saw higher death rates in patients with high IL-6 levels, hospitals began using tocilizumab in the hopes it might help dampen that response and hasten patients' recovery. Recent large observational studies found that it appears to help. But two randomized trials published October 20 in JAMA Internal Medicine found tocilizumab made no difference in patients' recovery. An editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine notes that the randomized trials had some weaknesses, and it may still turn out that "blunting the immune response with tocilizumab will reduce morbidity and mortality over the long haul." But for now, "findings from the randomized trials ... do not support routine tocilizumab use in COVID-19." —Reuters Staff Source
