ArticleEClinicalMedicine2022
Tocilizumab in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 pneumonia: Efficacy, safety, viral clearance, and antibody response from a randomised controlled trial (COVACTA).
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interleukin-6 blocking agents for treating COVID-19: a living systematic review.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Influence of anti-Spike protein antibody levels on tocilizumab efficacy in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia: a post-hoc analysis of the COVACTA trial.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Trial
- Prognostic value of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 viral load and antibodies in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.Clinical and translational science · 2023Trial
- A developmentally informed narrative review of Toll-like receptors in adult and pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome.Annals of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Early Prediction of Delirium in Postcardiac Surgery Patients: Machine Learning Model Development and External Validation.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Review
- Review
- Next-generation oncology: integrative therapeutic frontiers at the crossroads of precision genomics, immuno-engineering, and tumor microenvironment modulation.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- The identification of a SARs-CoV2 S2 protein derived peptide with super-antigen-like stimulatory properties on T-cells.Communications biology · 2025Article
- An Update on SARS-CoV-2 Clinical Trial Results-What We Can Learn for the Next Pandemic.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Comparative effectiveness of tocilizumab vs standard care in patients with severe COVID-19-related pneumonia: a retrospective cohort study utilizing registry data as a synthetic control.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Adjunctive treatment in COVID-19 and sepsis-What did we learn?Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2023Review
- Article
- Article
- Cost-effectiveness of therapeutics for COVID-19 patients: a rapid review and economic analysis.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2023Review
- A Clinical Insight on New Discovered Molecules and Repurposed Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19.Vaccines · 2023Review
- Tocilizumab-coated solid lipid nanoparticles loaded with cannabidiol as a novel drug delivery strategy for treating COVID-19: A review.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
37 authors at 20 institutions in 9 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: In COVACTA, a randomised, placebo-controlled trial in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), tocilizumab did not improve 28-day mortality, but shortened hospital and intensive care unit stay. Longer-term effects of tocilizumab in patients with COVID-19 are unknown. Therefore, the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab in COVID-19 beyond day 28 and its impact on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) clearance and antibody response in COVACTA were investigated. Methods: Adults in Europe and North America hospitalised with COVID-19 ( Findings: By day 60, 24·5% (72/294) of patients in the tocilizumab arm and 25·0% (36/144) in the placebo arm died (weighted difference -0·5% [95% CI -9·1 to 8·0]), and 67·0% (197/294) in the tocilizumab arm and 63·9% (92/144) in the placebo arm were discharged from the hospital. Serious infections occurred in 24·1% (71/295) of patients in the tocilizumab arm and 29·4% (42/143) in the placebo arm. Median time to negative reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction result in nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal samples was 15·0 days (95% CI 14·0 to 21·0) in the tocilizumab arm and 21·0 days (95% CI 14·0 to 28·0) in the placebo arm. All tested patients had positive test results for neutralising anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at day 60. Interpretation: There was no mortality benefit with tocilizumab through day 60. Tocilizumab did not impair viral clearance or host immune response, and no new safety signals were observed. Future investigations may explore potential biomarkers to optimize patient selection for tocilizumab treatment and combination therapy with other treatments. Funding: F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd and the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under OT number HHSO100201800036C.
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Registered trials
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