tocilizumab

Initially the focus of medical attention was on the need to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus. Alongside this, work was being done to find treatments for the disease, preferably among the range of drugs that were already in use in the treatment of other illnesses. These could be swiftly turned to the treatment of this novel virus because they were proven to be safe.  All it needed was to find one or more that had some efficacy.

 The first such discovery was dexamethasone, a drug to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, that was found to be beneficial in severe cases of COVID-19.

 The drug tocilizumab was already in use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In June 2020 an article was published in The Lancet outlining a study which tested its efficacy in the treatment of the coronavirus. It was found to be useful in treating severe cases of illness because it supresses the overproduction of cytokines which is a complication of COVID-19 causing severe respiratory difficulties. It keeps people out of intensive care and decreases the death rate.

 The name itself, however, was understandably frightening to newsreaders around the world. The official pronunciation is toe-si-liz-oo-mab.