Yale clinicians report promising results after treating COVID-19 patients at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) with a drug that reduces hyperinflammation in cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy.

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The team initially gave the drug, tocilizumab, to the most severely ill COVID-19 patients — specifically, those experiencing a dangerous immune response known as a “cytokine storm” — and it appeared to improve survival rates, especially among patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

Encouraged, the clinicians began administering the drug to less severely ill COVID-19 patients, with the aim of helping them avoid the need for ventilation. Although the hospital saw a surge in COVID-19 patients during the study period (from March 10 to April 21), there was no parallel surge in ventilator use, suggesting the drug was effective in managing dangerous inflammation associated with the disease, they said.