British scientists have discovered only the second type of drug to stop people dying from coronavirus.
Steroids costing just £5 per person were found to save the life of one in every ten patients treated and will now become standard of care treatment globally.
They were given to patients requiring oxygen and could be taken as a tablet or injected into the blood stream for the sickest patients.
Seven trials co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation followed patients on types of steroids called corticosteroids at 88 NHS hospitals.
One type of corticosteroids, called hydrocortisone, cut the risk of death in critically ill coronavirus patients by 20%.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: “The NHS will now take immediate action to ensure that patients who could benefit from treatment with hydrocortisone do so, adding a further weapon in the armoury in the worldwide fight against Covid-19.”
NHS trials meant Britain was the first country to find a drug that worked to stop Covid-19 patients from dying, in the form of dexamethasone.
Three studies were published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) proving corticosteroids improve survival.
One by Bristol University saw 68% critically ill patients survive after being given hydrocortisone, compared to 60% surviving without them.
The steroids are anti-inflammatory so stop the virus triggering a severe reaction where the immune system attacks the body, particularly in the lungs.
Trials by Oxford University and Imperial College London also confirmed different types of corticosteroids worked.
Prof Martin Landray, of Oxford University, said: “These patients are very high risk, for whom there was no other treatment, and this drug costs next to nothing.
“Treating 12 patients costs less than £60 so this is a really cheap treatment to save lives.”
Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer said: “These findings offer further evidence that corticosteroids can be an important part of Covid-19 treatment for severe patients.
“It is impressive to see so many UK participants willing to take part in studies. Research such as this will make the difference in controlling this virus.”
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Simon Stevens added: “One of the distinctive benefits of having our NHS is that we’ve been able to mobilise quickly and at scale to help researchers test and develop proven coronavirus treatments.”
It comes as the UK is not seeing a rise in deaths from the virus despite rising cases.
While there is a delay before rising cases start having an impact on deaths data, experts hope the low mortality is due in part to the NHS getting better at treating coronavirus.
However there is a race to find drugs that work before the winter flu season. Government scientists have said the UK could see as many as 80,000 more deaths in a “reasonable worst case scenario”.
The official UK death toll stands at 41,500.
One of the studies by Imperial College London found hydrocortisone led to a 93% chance of a better outcome. This was either a greater chance of survival or less need for organ support.
Prof Stephen Evans, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “This analysis published today is a tour-de-force.
“The methods are of the very highest standard for combining results from several trials answering the same question.”
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