Sanofi Discontinues Clinical Trials Of Kevzara After Showing Adverse Effects In COVID-19 Patients

Sanofi has stopped the clinical trials of Kevzara, one of the drugs being tested to treat COVID-19. The French pharmaceutical company announced on Tuesday that the trials had to be discontinued after recent international clinical tests showed that the rheumatoid arthritis drug could have adverse effects in some COVID-19 patients.

In a statement, Sanofi global head of research and development John Reed revealed that Kevzara produced negative reactions in some patients, including pneumonia and death. “Although this trial did not yield the results we hoped for, we are proud of the work that was achieved by the team to further our understanding of the potential use of Kevzara for the treatment of COVID-19,” he said.

Sanofi is one of the many companies racing to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. It manufactures Kevzara in partnership with American firm Regeneron.

Sanofi and Regeneron have been testing Kevzara in patients critically ill with COVID-19. Researchers hoped that by inhibiting cytokine storm, the drug could alleviate the fatal symptoms of the disease. In phase 3 trial outside the U.S., however, Kevzara failed to meet its primary endpoint of improvement in clinical symptoms.

After testing the drug on 420 patients in hospitals in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and Spain, the researchers found that serious adverse events were experienced by up to 29 percent of the patients. The incidence of adverse events leading to death was also up to 10 percent, while serious infections such as COVID-19 pneumonia were observed in up to 13 percent of the patients.

On Tuesday, Sanofi said it had no longer plans to conduct further clinical studies for Kevzara in COVID-19, as Roche’s rival IL-6 drug Actemra also failed to produce promising results in similar trials.

In August, the European Commission entered a deal with Sanofi, stating that it would buy 300 million doses of Sanofi’s potential vaccine candidate. On top of the European Commission’s purchase, each of the 27 members of the European Commission could also purchase separate doses of the vaccine for their respective citizens. The U.S. also previously earmarked $2.1 billion for Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s joint vaccine development program.