Drugs targeting IL-1 or IL-6 did not shorten the time to clinical improvement in this sample of patients with COVID-19, hypoxic respiratory failure, low SOFA score, and low baseline mortality risk.

Between April 4, and Dec 6, 2020, 342 patients were randomly assigned to IL-1 blockade (n=112) or no IL-1 blockade (n=230) and simultaneously randomly assigned to IL-6 blockade or no IL-6 blockade (n=115).

Most patients were male, and median Systematic Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at randomisation was 3 (2–4).

All 342 patients were included in the primary intention-to-treat analysis.

The estimated median time to clinical improvement was 12 days in the IL-1 blockade group versus 12 days (10–15) in the no IL-1 blockade group.

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