Covid, anakinra reduces deaths and hospitalizations: study on anti-inflammatory

An anti-inflammatory that can reduce ICU admissions and covid deaths. According to a study, the “early and targeted” use of anakinra, in combination with the current standard of care, “reduced mortality and ICU admissions, increasing complete recovery in hospitalized Covid-19 patients with poor prognosis due to risk of severe respiratory failure. The decrease in relative mortality was 55%, reaching 80% in patients affected by cytokine storm “. These are the data from the ‘Save-More’ research, a phase III study, on the anti-inflammatory anakinra in association with the current therapeutic standard in patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 pneumonia. The results of the research, conducted by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) and the Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis, were published in ‘Nature Medicine’. “Early treatment with anakinra showed remarkable efficacy and a reduction in the progression of disease and death equal to 64% on day 28 of the Save-More study. The decrease in relative mortality was 55%, reaching 80% in patients affected by cytokine storm – the authors point out – The percentage of patients who have healing achieved exceeds 50%, while the number of patients with severe stationary disease was reduced by 54%. The average time to discharge from hospital and intensive care was reduced by 1 and 4 days, respectively. ” “The demonstration of the efficacy of anakinra, an IL-1 receptor antagonist, in reducing the cytokine storm typical of Covid-19, and the identification of an easily determinable blood parameter that can correctly identify patients who can benefit of this same drug, opens up new therapeutic scenarios in particular in serious patients at high risk of entry into resuscitation and death “, says Emanuele Nicastri, infectious disease specialist and director of the High Intensive Care Infectious Diseases Division of the Spallanzani Institute in Rome – which will help the scientific community to counteract the effects of the virus by intervening on its mechanism of action and canceling its viral strength “.” The results published in Nature Medicine represent the only data available on the prevention of the progression of the disease from the initial stage to the critical stage, indicating that inflammatory disease must be treated promptly with a targeted approach specifically to IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta “, emphasizes Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, principal curator of the research and lecturer in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the National Koper University of Athens. The Save-More study is “the first pivotal randomized and controlled study conducted on a large pool of hospitalized patients and aimed specifically at assessing a target population at risk of progression and at demonstrating the benefit of timely intervention to prevent disease progression and The standard treatments administered in combination – the curators point out – were similar for the two arms of the study and included dexamethasone, anticoagulants and remdesivir “.