In this randomized trial involving hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, the use of tocilizumab did not result in significantly better clinical status or lower mortality than placebo at 28 days.

In this phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned patients who were hospitalized with severe COVID-19 pneumonia in a 2:1 ratio receive a single intravenous infusion of tocilizumab (at a dose of 8 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo.

Of the 452 patients who underwent randomization, 438 (294 in the tocilizumab group and 144 in the placebo group) were included in the primary and secondary analyses.

The median value for clinical status on the ordinal scale at day 28 was 1.0 in the tocilizumab group and 2.0 (non-ICU hospitalization without supplemental oxygen) in the placebo group.

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