A real-life study suggests that the addition of baricitinib to standard-of-care (SOC) among hospitalized COVID-19 patients with severe disease was tied to decreased mortality.

This two-center, observational, retrospective cohort study included 369 patients with severe COVID-19, with a median symptom duration of 6 days. Overall, 176 (47.7%) patients received SOC, while baricitinib was added to SOC in 193 (52.3%) patients. Patients in the baricitinib plus SOC group had lesser odds of reaching the composite outcome of ICU admission or death, in comparison with patients in the SOC group (22.3% vs 36.9%, P = 0.002). Mortality rate was also significantly lower in the baricitinib arm compared to those treated with SOC (14.7% vs 26.6%, P = 0.005). The study is published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases… (DG Alerts)