https://seekingalpha.com/news/3649703-roche-sanofi
Post# of 148182
Here's the pre-print: https://imperialcollegelondon.app.box.com/s/c...Abody_link
Roche/Sanofi treatment combo improves survival rates in COVID-19
– Study
Jan. 07, 2021 12:54 PM ETSanofi (SNY)
A combination of drugs from Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) and Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) has improved the survival rates and sped up the recovery in critically ill COVID-19 patients, Daily Mail reports, quoting the results of a study published online today.
Based on a trial involving 3,900 patients, the combo of Roche’s Actemra (tocilizumab) and Sanofi’s Kevzara (sarilumab) have reduced the mortality rates by 8.5 percentage points among patients hospitalized and severely ill with the disease. Both Actemra and Kevzara are Interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor antagonists and approved for moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis.
The death rate has stood at 35.8% in a control group compared to 27.3% among patients receiving either tocilizu
mab or sarilumab, according to study data that are not yet peer-reviewed.
In the study run across 15 countries, the patients treated with either treatment have recovered swiftly, and were discharged from intensive care units around seven to 10 days earlier than those who did not get these drugs, said Anthony Gordon, a professor from Imperial College London who co-led the study.
“A crucial difference may be that in our study, critically ill patients were enrolled within 24 hours of starting organ support,” he added, pointing to a potential early opportunity to treat the sickest patients to gain the maximum benefit.
However, the drugs individually had a checkered past against COVID-19. In July, Roche announced that Actemra failed to achieve the primary endpoint in Phase 3 clinical trial in adult patients with severe COVID-19. In a global Phase 3 trial in severely or critically ill COVID-19 patients, Sanofi’s Kevzara faced a similar fate as announced in September.
Previously, in a WHO-sponsored study, the ant-viral Veklury (remdesivir) from Gilead Sciences' (NASDAQ:GILD) failed to show a treatment benefit, prompting the President of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, Jozef Kesecioglu ask the healthcare professional not to use the drug routinely in COVID-19. Remdesivir is fully approved in the U.S. for COVID-19 patients.