Tocilizumab therapy reduced intensive care unit admissions and/or mortality in COVID-19 patients

•No drugs have yet been proven effective for the treatment of severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2.•By neutralizing a key inflammatory factor in the cytokine release syndrome in COVID-19, tocilizumab (TCZ) can block the cytokine storm and reduce disease severity.•Our case-control study found that even though patients treated with TCZ had more comorbidities and presented with more severe forms, death and/or ICU admissions were higher in patients without TCZ.•This result strongly suggests that TCZ may reduce the number of ICU admissions and/or mortality in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. No therapy has yet proven effective in COVID-19. Tocilizumab (TCZ) in patients with severe COVID-19 could be an effective treatment. We conducted a retrospective case-control study in the Nord Franche-Comté Hospital, France. We compared the outcome of patients treated with TCZ and patients without TCZ considering a combined primary endpoint: death and/or ICU admissions. Patients with TCZ (n=20) had a higher Charlson comorbidity index (5.3 [±2.4] vs 3.4 [±2.6], P=0.014), presented with more severe forms (higher level of oxygen therapy at 13L/min vs 6L/min, P