Positive top-line results for Sobi's anakinra in COVID-19 pneumonia

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (STO: SOBI) and the Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis have announced positive top-line results from the Investigator-sponsored SAVE-MORE study, which assessed the effect of anakinra in moderate-to-severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

Early and targeted use of anakinra in addition to current standard of care in hospitalized patients with poor prognosis prevented either death or progression to severe respiratory failure, while increasing the number of patients who were discharged from hospital with no evidence of COVID-19 infection, the company said.

"It is clear that there is still a considerable unmet medical need for COVID-19 despite recent advances in treatment"SAVE-MORE is a large, randomized controlled trial in over 600 hospitalized patients that specifically identifies those at risk of severe respiratory failure by the measurement of elevated soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, a plasma biomarker that reflects immune activation and has been previously associated with poor prognosis in a number of conditions.