One of the few products that have been shown to reduce mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients is dexamethasone, a widely available generic steroid that is already on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines for use in reducing inflammation. This very cheap drug could be of particular benefit to coronavirus patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but it will be important to ensure they have access to the product given that it will be in high demand in better resourced parts of the world.
For this reason Unitaid and Wellcome have joined up with partners in the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) to expand equitable access to dexamethasone in LMICs. Unitaid and the...