Baricitinib for the Management of SARS-CoV-2-Infected Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Baricitinib is known to reduce mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients; however, the data are inconsistent. Therefore, it needs to be explored to further understand the clinical benefits of this drug in the management of COVID-19 patients. Does baricitinib statistically significantly reduce mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients? To answer these questions, three databases known as ScienceDirect, PubMed/MEDLINE, and Scopus and other sources, such as preprint (medRxiv) and reference lists, were thoroughly searched. Four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Based on the meta-analysis, baricitinib statistically significantly reduced mortality with the risk ratio (RR) of RR = 0.74 [95% CI: 0.58 to 0.94; p = 0.01] and moderately high heterogeneity, where I(2) = 62% and p = 0.05. On the other hand, RR = 0.84 [95% CI: 0.75 to 0.95; p = 0.005] with insignificant heterogeneity of I(2) = 20% and p = 0.28 was found for disease progression. Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) analysis revealed that three out of four articles were ranked as high-quality articles with low RoB. Based on the evidence grading, the overall certainty of evidences was moderate. In conclusion, baricitinib statistically significantly reduced mortality and disease progression in COVID-19 patients when the patients were treated with baricitinib at a dosage of 2 mg or 4 mg for a maximum duration of 14 days.