Table 1.

Interleukin (IL)−6 antagonists for patients with SARS-CoV-2 induced disease.

Dose and number of patients (n)	Clinical outcomes	Safety	Ref.
Tocilizumab
8 mg/kg up to 800 mg/per dose, n = 180	reduced lethality	no specific toxicity	[2]
8 mg/kg up to 800 mg/per dose, n = 60	no benefit over standard care for reducing the risk of disease progression	adverse events in 23.3% of patients compared with 11.1% in standard care	[117]
4–8 mg/kg up to 800 mg/per dose, n = 20	reduced CRP reactivity in 84.2% of cases	no adverse reactions	[3]
	circulatory lymphocytes returned to normal in 52.6% of cases
	all patients were discharged from hospital
6 mg/kg, n = 91	disease progression (14 days after therapy): 9% vs. 13% in standard care group.	adverse events in 36% of patients vs. 25% in standard care	[113]
8 mg/kg, n = 161	disease progression (14 days after therapy): 18% vs. 14.9% in placebo	serious infections: 8.1% vs. 17.3% in placebo	[114]
8 mg/kg, n = 249	mechanical ventilation or death at day 28 after therapy: 12% vs. 19.3% in placebo.	severe adverse events: 15.2% vs. 19.7% in placebo	[115]
8 mg/kg, n = 294	death at day 28 after therapy: 19.7% vs. 19.4% in placebo	serious adverse events: 34.9% vs. 38.5% in placebo	[116]
400 mg, n = 32	clinical improvement and mortality: 69% and 15% vs. 61% and 33% in standard care	similar pulmonary thrombosis and infection rates between tocilizumab and standard care groups	[12]
Sarilumab
400 mg, n = 28	clinical improvement at day 28 after therapy: 61% vs. 64% in standard care group.	similar pulmonary thrombosis and infection rates between sarilumab (1 case, 21%) and standard care (1 case, 18%) groups	[48]
200 and 400 mg, n = 159 and 173	no advantage over placebo in terms of clinical efficacy.	similar safety profile with that for placebo	[4]
8 mg tocilizumab (n = 353) or 400 mg sarilumab (n = 48)	Both drugs showed improved survival at day 90 after therapy	–	[11]
CRP, C-reactive protein