
FDA authorizes Roche drug for severely ill COVID-19 patients
Fox News
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval to Roche’s Actemra (tocilizumab) to boost outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients receiving oxygen and steroid medications.
"Today’s action demonstrates the FDA’s commitment to making new therapies available through every stage of the global COVID-19 pandemic," said Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in a statement posted late Thursday. "Although vaccines have been successful in decreasing the number of patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization, providing additional therapies for those who do become hospitalized is an important step in combating this pandemic." The antibody drug doesn’t target the virus but works to alleviate inflammation by blocking the interleukin-6 receptor involved in the immune response. It was authorized to treat certain hospitalized COVID-19 patients aged 2 and up. Actemra is already approved for other inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis.More Related News