Demand for Steroid Surges After Drug Showed Promise for Covid-19

(Bloomberg) -- Demand in U.S. hospitals for a cheap, commonly used steroid has surged more than six-fold since U.K. research showed it reduced the mortality of patients who are severely ill with Covid-19.

Vizient Inc., a drug-purchasing group that works with more than half of the U.S. hospitals and health systems, said in a report Thursday that in six days orders for dexamethasone increased 610%. Meanwhile, the so-called fill rate of dexamethasone fell from 97% to 54%, suggesting that as demand increased, hospitals have been able to buy little more than half of the amount they ordered.

Researchers and drug companies are trying to identify or develop vaccines and treatments that work to minimize hospitalizations and deaths caused by the novel coronavirus. Dexamethasone, introduced in the 1960s, is a generic drug that is used to treat inflammatory disorders and some cancers. Clinicians are using it to treat the most severe patients who require oxygen or a ventilator for assistance breathing.

Steven Lucio, vice president of pharmacy solutions at Vizient, said that even with a decrease in fill rates, the drug is still reaching hospitals around the U.S. Vizient categorizes dexamethasone as a “high impact” drug on its essential medicines list.

“If you don’t have these medicines, you shouldn’t have the doors of your hospital open,” said Lucio.

With U.S. hospitals ordering dexamethasone at higher levels than normal, suppliers are distributing both an oral tablet and injectable form of the drug. Observers are confident the eight companies that make the drug can ramp up production enough to handle the demand.

“Fortunately, this is an inexpensive medicine and there are many dexamethasone manufacturers worldwide, who we are confident can accelerate production,” said World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a news conference Monday.

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