European Union Evaluates Arthritis Drug of Roche as Treatment of Covid-19

The drugs regulator of Europe said, it had been evaluating the use of the arthritis drug known as Actemra developed by Roche in the adults, who have been hospitalized due to severe corona virus as a potential treatment for the viral disease.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is going to be carrying out an accelerated assessment of the drug ‘Actemra’, which has also been including the results from four of the big studies in the patients, that have been hospitalized due to serious corona virus infection, and the assessment is going to be done for the purpose of deciding whether the extension of the indication should be authorized or not, and the result of the evaluation has been expected by the month of October 2021 until or unless the supplementary information is needed.

Tocilizumab, which was sold by the company as Actemra and RoActemra, has is proved promising in the clinical trials for treating the novel corona virus patients, and it was approved by the health regulators of the United States in June 2021 for the emergency use among all of the hospitalized patients related to corona virus, who needed oxygen.

A large trial conducted in February 2021 has shown that, the medicine Tocilizumab is helpful in decreasing the risk of the death among the severely infected novel corona virus patients admitted in the hospital, and it was also able to shorten the time required for the recovery of the patients and also decreased the need for the mechanical ventilation.