Swiss drugmaker Roche to mix Actemra with remdesivir in COVID-19 trial

The Swiss drugmaker Roche on May 28 reportedly said that company plans to test if mixing its anti-inflammation drug Actemra with Gilead Sciences Inc’s anti-viral treatment Remdesivir works better against severe COVID-19 pneumonia than Remdesivir alone. currently, Actemra and Remdesivir are being used separately in some settings and clinical trials. Remdesivir is the drug to tackle massive immune reactions that sometimes occur in patients stricken with coronavirus, while Actemra is aimed at interfering with viral replication. 

According to an international media outlet, Roche is hoping that by combining the two in a global study, the company will be able to offer doctors a one-two punch against the deadly virus that had so far infected more than 2.8 million people worldwide. In a statement, Roche’s Chief Medical Officer Levi Garraway said that based on the current understanding, the company believes that combining an antiviral with an immune modulator could potentially be an effective approach to treating patients with severe COVID-19. 

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Furthermore, the Swiss drugmaker is also studying Actemra, which was originally developed for arthritis but also used to control immune reactions in some cancer patients. The drug is reportedly being studied as a monotherapy in a separate trial of 450 patients due to complete enrolment skin and produce results later this year. On the other hand, Remdesivir, which is a failed Ebola drug and repurposed amid COVID-19 pandemic, captured global attention after a 397-patient study showed that the drug helped reduce the time of recovery in some patients and helped keep people alive. 

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Remdesivir improves recovery time 

According to recent research, Remdesivir was associated with a 47% speedier recovery, however, only 0.05% in patients needing intubation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The authors noted that patients requiring supplemental oxygen-derived the most benefit from remdesivir, while the critical ICU patients needed more intense treatments. 

According to the study published in the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, the University of Minnesota, the scientists wrote, “Preliminary results of this trial suggest that a 10-day course of remdesivir was superior to placebo in the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19”. 

(Image: @NursingNotesUK/Twitter) 

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