Dexamethasone has saved around one million lives worldwide since its discovery as an effective treatment for coronavirus in a clinical trial in the NHS.

New figures show that use of the drug has so far saved 22,000 lives in the UK and an estimated one million worldwide.

Since the RECOVERY trial, led by University of Oxford scientists and involving tens of thousands of patients and 175 NHS hospitals, announced the results just nine months ago, dexamethasone has been used to treat millions of seriously unwell patients with coronavirus. The researchers found that dexamethasone cut the risk of death by a third for coronavirus patients on ventilators and for those on oxygen it cut deaths by almost a fifth.

Previously used for a wide range of ailments, including allergies and skin conditions, the drug is now being used around the globe to improve survival in patients with coronavirus who need oxygen or ventilation.

The NHS moved quickly to use the breakthrough research in hospital settings. Dexamethasone was made available to patients on hospital wards in England just hours after the results were announced in June.

The new figures are revealed in a paper for the NHS England board looking at how the health service has responded to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: “Thanks to the exceptional work of our researchers, NHS staff and patients, around one million lives may have been saved around the world. Research that would usually take years produced answers in record time – with results that have reverberated across the globe. Just as this virus has spread across borders, so too must the  treatments and vaccinations that are humanity’s shared ‘exit strategy’ from this pandemic.”