A cheap steroid called dexamethasone has been found to reduce the risk of death by up to one-third among coronavirus patients with severe respiratory complications, University of Oxford researchers have said.
Scientists working on the Recovery Trial found the drug could benefit patients on ventilators or oxygen, but had no effect on those who did not need help breathing.
“Based on these results, one death would be prevented by treatment of around eight ventilated patients or around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone,” researchers said in a statement.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, tweeted: “This global first exemplifies the power of science.”
“I’m absolutely delighted that today we can announce the first successful clinical trial for a treatment for Covid-19,” he added.
Recovery Trial experts said a randomised group of 2,104 patients was given 6mg of dexamethasone per day for 10 days, while another group of 4,321 was given normal treatment.
Dexamethasone reduced deaths by one-fifth in patients on oxygen feeds and by one-third in those who needed a ventilator to breathe, preliminary results showed.
Mr Hancock added: “This is a huge step forward and it’s because we’ve backed the science.”
Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, and one of the trial’s chief investigators, said in a statement: “These preliminary results from the Recovery Trial are very clear – dexamethasone reduces the risk of death among patients with severe respiratory complications.
“Covid-19 is a global disease – it is fantastic that the first treatment demonstrated to reduce mortality is one that is instantly available and affordable worldwide.”
Researchers are now working to publish the full details of their results.
Nick Cammack, of the Wellcome health foundation, called for the drug to be made available to anyone who needed it around the world, whether they could afford to pay for it or not.
“It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage,” he added. “This is extremely promising news and a significant step forward, but we still have a long way to go. To end this pandemic, we still need better diagnostics to detect, medicines to treat and vaccines to prevent Covid-19.”
Oral and injection solutions of dexamethasone were added to a government list of medicines banned for export from the UK at midnight on Tuesday.
