Study shows life-saving benefit of baricitinib for ventilated COVID
patients

Date:
February 7, 2022
Source:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Summary:
Critically ill COVID-19 patients on a mechanical ventilator or
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) lived more often when
randomized to receive baricitinib. Doctors call this drug 'bari,'
and receiving the pill once a day for up to 14 days yielded one of
the largest a survival advantages seen yet in the COVID pandemic,
according to a new study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Critically ill COVID-19 patients on a mechanical ventilator or
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) lived more often when
randomized to receive baricitinib. Doctors call this drug 'bari,'
and receiving the pill once a day for up to 14 days yielded one of the
largest a survival advantages seen yet in the COVID pandemic, according
to a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.


==========================================================================
It is the first randomized study of the drug in ventilated ICU patients,
half of whom received the study drug while the other received placebo. It
is also the very drug predicted most likely to benefit COVID-19 patients
in a recent AI study to determine which drugs could likely be repurposed
to treat COVID-19.

"This study found that among COVID patients who were already critically
ill on a mechanical ventilator, adding baricitinib to usual care
(steroids) saved lives," said first author E. Wes Ely, MD, professor of Medicine and Critical Care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and associate director of aging research at the Nashville VA GRECC.

"At 60 days, 62% of patients given placebo had died versus only 45% of
those receiving bari. This means that for every 6 people treated with
bari as opposed to the placebo, one additional life was saved," he said.

Baricitinib is an oral, selective Janus kinase (JAK) 1,2 inhibitor
used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that has previously shown efficacy in studies of hospitalized adults with COVID-19, including the COV-BARRIER multinational trial with study patients enrolled from 101
sites in 12 countries.

In designing this investigation, Ely partnered with Vince Marconi,
MD, professor of Infectious Diseases at Emory University. Marconi and colleagues had been interested in using JAK inhibitors for more than
a decade to suppress inflammation in HIV. When the computer determined baricitinib was the prime suspect to save lives in COVID-19, it set the physician-scientists in motion with other collaborators at Eli Lilly
and around the world.



========================================================================== "These data offer us a new tool in our armamentarium to help people live
even if they are sick enough to require a breathing machine," Ely said.

The study took place from Dec. 23, 2020-April 10, 2021, enrolling 101 participants with 51 receiving baricitinib plus standard of care and 50 receiving placebo plus standard of care.

Treatment with baricitinib significantly reduced all-cause mortality
when compared with placebo as 29 of the 50 participants (58%) died
in the placebo group versus 20 of the 51 participants (39%) in the
baricitinib group.

"This was a fairly small study of 100 patients done alongside our large
phase III study of 1,525 patients in which we found similar life-saving
benefit for less sick hospitalized patients," Ely said.

"Next, we need more clinical trials designed explicitly to determine
how to improve survival for this subset of the world's sickest COVID
patients." The World Health Organization (WHO) recently updated its
guidelines to 'strongly recommend' baricitinib in combination with
steroids to treat severe or critical COVID-19 patients in a recent
BMJ article.

The COV-Barrier study was funded by Eli Lilly and Co., under license
from Incyte Corp. As a result of this study, baricitinib is being made available free to low-to-middle income countries globally to aid in
pandemic relief and in an effort to achieve equity in delivery of this life-saving therapy.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Vanderbilt_University_Medical_Center. Original written by Craig
Boerner. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. E Wesley Ely, Athimalaipet V Ramanan, Cynthia E Kartman,
Stephanie de
Bono, Ran Liao, Maria Lucia B Piruzeli, Jason D Goldman, Jose'
Francisco Kerr Saraiva, Sujatro Chakladar, Vincent C Marconi,
Jorge Alatorre- Alexander, Javier David Altclas, Marcelo Casas,
Valeria CevoliRecio, Todd Ellerin, Kleber Giovanni Luz, Jason
D. Goldman, Maria Patelli Juliani Souza Lima, Akram Khan, Priscila
Paulin, Ana Carolina Procopio Carvalho, Gustavo Rojas Velasco,
Jose Francisco Kerr Saraiva, Imad Shawa, Jesus Simon Campos,
Brian Tiffany, Adilson Westheimer Cavalcante. Efficacy and
safety of baricitinib plus standard of care for the treatment
of critically ill hospitalised adults with COVID-19 on invasive
mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation:
an exploratory, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. The Lancet
Respiratory Medicine, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600(22)00006-6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220207124839.htm

--- up 9 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)