Baricitinib Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Is Associated With a Reduction in Secondary Infections

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Apr 19;10(5):ofad205. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofad205. eCollection 2023 May.

Abstract

We performed a secondary analysis of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT-2) randomized controlled trial and found that baricitinib was associated with a 50% reduction in secondary infections after controlling for baseline and postrandomization patient characteristics. This finding provides a novel mechanism of benefit for baricitinib and supports the safety profile of this immunomodulator for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019.

Keywords: COVID-19; baricitinib; secondary infections.