Insight into Dexamethasone’s Benefits in Severe COVID-19

The steroid’s exceptional performance in early results from the RECOVERY clinical trial in the United Kingdom is a rational outcome of the drug’s anti-inflammatory effects, experts say.

Written byAbby Olena, PhD

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Update (June 23): The RECOVERY group posted the results of its study on dexamethasone to medRxiv on June 22.

In a press release on Tuesday (June 16), researchers from a large, randomized controlled trial for COVID-19 treatments announced that they’d seen an improvement in survival at 28 days after entry into the trial for the sickest patients who received the drug dexamethasone. In ventilated patients in particular, giving the steroid reduced deaths by one-third in the RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) trial. And patients on supplemental oxygen who received dexamethasone had a 20 percent lower mortality rate than those who did not. In contrast, the press release reported no benefit of the medication in subjects who were not in need of respiratory support.

Although the results, which described the outcomes of 2,104 patients who received dexamethasone, are not yet published, their release has generated excitement. Already, ...

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Meet the Author

Abby Olena, PhD
As a freelancer for The Scientist, Abby reports on new developments in life science for the website. She has a PhD from Vanderbilt University and got her start in science journalism as the Chicago Tribune’s AAAS Mass Media Fellow in 2013. Following a stint as an intern for The Scientist, Abby was a postdoc in science communication at Duke University, where she developed and taught courses to help scientists share their research. In addition to her work as a science journalist, she leads science writing and communication workshops and co-produces a conversational podcast. She is based in Alabama.
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