Safety of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab in COVID-19 Treatment

Abstract

An important part of treating patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 is to ensure effective pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy before life-threatening complications, such as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or sepsis begin to develop. Current COVID-19 treatment protocols often use remdesivir and tocilizumab, though safety data on these drugs are insufficient. Therefore, experts of the Centre for Evaluation of Medicinal Products’ Safety of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Scientific Centre for Expert Evaluation of Medicinal Products” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation studied adverse reactions to remdesivir and tocilizumab, which are registered in the VigiBase (as of August 27, 2020), the global database of individual case safety reports.