{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,2]],"date-time":"2026-04-02T06:32:02Z","timestamp":1775111522149,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,4]],"date-time":"2022-04-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1649030400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Tocilizumab and baricitinib have been observed to improve the outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, a comparative evaluation of these drugs has not been performed. Materials and Methods: A retrospective, single-center study was conducted using the data of COVID-19 patients admitted to Hokkaido University hospital between April 2020 and September 2021, who were treated with tocilizumab or baricitinib. The clinical characteristics of the patients who received tocilizumab were compared to those of patients who received baricitinib. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses of the outcomes of all-cause mortality and improvement in respiratory status were performed. The development of secondary infection events was analyzed using the Kaplan\u2013Meier method and the log-rank test. Results: Of the 459 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the study, 64 received tocilizumab treatment and 34 baricitinib treatment, and those 98 patients were included in the study. Most patients were treated with concomitant steroids and exhibited the same severity level at the initiation of drug treatment. When compared to each other, neither tocilizumab nor baricitinib use were associated with all-cause mortality or improvement in respiratory status within 28 days from drug administration. Conclusions: Age, chronic renal disease and early administration of TCZ or BRT from the onset of COVID-19 were independent prognostic factors for all-cause mortality, whereas anti-viral drug use and the severity of COVID-19 at baseline were associated with an improvement in respiratory status. Secondary infection-free survival rates of patients treated with tocilizumab and those treated with baricitinib did not significantly differ. The results suggest that both tocilizumab and baricitinib could be clinically equivalent agents of choice in treatment of COVID-19.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina58040513","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,5]],"date-time":"2022-04-05T06:01:34Z","timestamp":1649138494000},"page":"513","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Comparative Efficacy of Tocilizumab and Baricitinib Administration in COVID-19 Treatment: A Retrospective Cohort Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"58","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8337-884X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuichi","family":"Kojima","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1560-8361","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sho","family":"Nakakubo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nozomu","family":"Takei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Keisuke","family":"Kamada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"},{"name":"Department of Mycobacterium Reference and Research, The Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association, 3-1-24, Matsuyama Kiyose, Tokyo 101-0061, Japan"},{"name":"Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association, 3-1-24, Matsuyama Kiyose, Tokyo 101-0061, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yu","family":"Yamashita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"},{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine 1, Obihiro Kosei General Hospital, Obihiro 080-0016, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Junichi","family":"Nakamura","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Munehiro","family":"Matsumoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hiroshi","family":"Horii","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kazuki","family":"Sato","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hideki","family":"Shima","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2124-6793","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Masaru","family":"Suzuki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Satoshi","family":"Konno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, North 15 West 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, 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