Researchers, including those from India, carried out a study that found that arthritis drug tocilizumab increases the survival chances for patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms.

The study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine , was authored by 20 researchers including Dr Arvinder S Soin from Medanta, Dr Rajesh Chawla from Apollo Hospitals and Dr Manoj Goel from Fortis Hospitals.

For the study, the researchers examined 180 patients by making two cohorts — 90 of them received tocilizumab and standard care while the remaining 90 received only standard care.

A sub-group examination of severe patients showed lower mortality among those who received tocilizumab.

The findings suggested that the proportion of patients whose disease progressed — from moderate to severe or severe to death — in 28 days was 12 per cent (11 of 91) in the tocilizumab group. In the standard care group, it was 18 per cent (16 of 88).

Meanwhile, among the subset of patients who had severe Covid-19, the proportion of patients whose disease progressed to death in 28 days was 16 per cent (eight of 50) in the tocilizumab group. While it was 34 per cent (14 of 41) in the standard care group.

“However, post-hoc evidence from this study suggests tocilizumab might still be effective in patients with severe Covid-19, and so should be investigated further in future studies,” the study said.

The study stands in contrast with another study published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine . According to the previous study, tocilizumab did not significantly improve clinical status or mortality rate at 28 days.