UK scientists have hailed the biggest Covid-19 drug breakthrough to date after an Oxford university trial found a cheap and widely available generic steroid significantly reduced the risk of dying from coronavirus.
The drug, dexamethasone, was found to cut the death rate of the most seriously ill patients on ventilators by one-third, and by one-fifth in patients receiving oxygen, according to trial results announced on Tuesday.
“This is a statistically compelling result” with “instant global importance” said Martin Landray, an Oxford professor of medicine and epidemiology and deputy chief investigator of the so-called Recovery trial. “It works for the sickest patients, which is exactly what one would hope for.”