Hospitals see shortages of a cheap steroid that one study says helps Covid-19 patients
After preliminary release of a study found that a cheap steroid reduced deaths by a third in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, hospitals across the U.S. saw a surge in demand for the drug. There is a shortage of several injectable versions.
Specifically, hospital orders for dexamethasone, a commonly used and inexpensive corticosteroid, spiked 183% on June 16, when study researchers released top-line data that suggested the decades-old therapy could possibly improve the odds of survival in the sickest patients. The study was run by scientists at the University of Oxford in the U.K.
