REPURPOSING: AI discovered an old arthritis drug that can help elderly people survive COVID-19.

The once-daily medicine, called baricitinib, was first identified as a potential treatment for the virus by BenevolentAI, a startup based in London.

The company used its AI software to comb through scientific literature for drugs that might block the infection process. The most promising treatment it discovered was baricitinib, which it predicted could stop the infection from entering lung cells.

The new study has now shown the drug’s safety and efficacy in the largest group of patients published thus far.

Scientists from Imperial College London and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet gave baricitinib to 83 COVID-19 patients with a median age of 81 who were being treated in hospitals across Italy and Spain.

They found that patients receiving baricitinib had a 71% reduction in mortality compared to the 83 people in the control group who had not taken the drug.

Not a huge group, but amazing numbers nonetheless.