Tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, reduced mortality in COVID-19 patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) but not in other hospitalized patients, according to separate studies reported in JAMA Internal Medicine.

A large-scale study in COVID-19 patients in ICUs, led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., found that 27 percent of patients given tocilizumab within two days of being admitted to an ICU died within 30 days, compared with 37 percent who did not take the drug.

But a separate study found that tocilizumab did not reduce mortality at 28 days for hospitalized COVID-19 and pneumonia patients not admitted to an ICU.