Dexamethasone: Steroid drug a ‘breakthrough’ for coronavirus treatment

A cheap and widely used steroid has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among coronavirus patients.

Scientists have announced a “major breakthrough” in treating COVID-19 with a common steroid becoming the first drug to save the lives of coronavirus patients.

UK trials of the drug dexamethasone showed it reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill patients admitted to hospital.

The cheap and widely available steroid is typically used in the treatment of other diseases to reduce inflammation.

The results, announced yesterday, suggest the medication should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of coronavirus, the researchers who led the trials said.

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The steroid dexamethasone was found to save the lives of one-third of the most serious COVID-19 cases in the English trial. Picture: Bertrand Guay/AFP

The steroid is typically used to reduce inflammation in other illnesses. Picture: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

“This is a result that shows that if patients who have COVID-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost,” said Oxford University professor Martin Landray, who is co-leading the trial.

“It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than ₤50 ($A90) you can treat eight patients and save a life,” he told reporters in an online briefing.

“(Dexamethasone is) the only drug that’s so far shown to reduce mortality – and it reduces significantly,” co-lead investigator Professor Peter Horby said.

“It’s on almost every pharmacy shelf in every hospital, it’s available throughout the world, and it’s very cheap.”

There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19, which has infected 7.94 million people globally and killed over 435,000 since the outbreak began in China late last year.

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COVID-19 expert at the Wellcome Trust global health charity, Dr Nick Cammack, said the findings would “transform the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lives and economies across the world”.

“Countless lives will be saved globally,” he said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the drug was the “biggest breakthrough yet” in treating the coronavirus, while top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci called it “a significant improvement in the available therapeutic options that we have”.

The UK will make dexamethasone available to patients on the country’s National Health Service, with the Department of Health approving the drug to treat all hospitalised COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen, effective immediately.

– with wires