coronavirus drug test: dexamethasone

The inexpensive steroid dexamethasone is the first drug known to reduce risk of death in Covid-19 patients, British researchers announced Tuesday.

The medicine cut deaths by up to a third in coronavirus patients on ventilators and cut deaths by one-fifth in patients on oxygen, according to data from a trial run by scientists at Oxford University. The trial randomly assigned 2,104 patients to receive dexamethasone and compared their outcomes to those of 4,321 patients who received standard care.

Dexamethasone, widely used to treat inflammation since it was first approved by the FDA in 1958, helps reduce inflammation that develops when the body overreacts to the virus. There is no evidence the drug helps mildly ill patients, but in those on ventilators — more than half of whom die, according to recent studies — the impact would be significant.

U.K. officials heralded the results, which have not yet been peer reviewed, as a breakthrough.

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Dexamethasone is sold by a range of generic drug companies for as low as $8 for 30 tablets in the U.S., according to GoodRx.

  Politico