The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Monday 16 August that it had started a rolling review of a seventh potential treatment for Covid-19 - RoActemra (tocilizumab), an anti-inflammatory drug authorised in the European Union since 2009.
In a statement, the EMA said that if the “rolling review” is successful, the treatment could be extended to adult in-patients with severe Covid-19, “who are already receiving treatment with corticosteroids and require extra oxygen or mechanical ventilation”.
The European agency added that the interest of this drug lies in its capacity to block the effects of interleukin 6, a substance produced by the immune system and which “plays an important role in Covid-19”.
Its rolling review will be based on four large studies in patients hospitalised with severe Covid-19. The result of the review is expected in mid-October, “unless supplementary information is needed”, the EMA said in its statement.
Two other long-standing medicines authorised in the EU that may contribute to the treatment of Covid-19 are also under rolling review - Kineret (anakinra) since July, and Olumiant (baricitinib) since April. The latter is one of the potential treatments considered particularly “promising” by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12752/16). (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)