The BMJ Awards 2021: 'Landmark' study on dexamethasone wins paper of the year

Researchers whose rapid investigations into possible covid treatments that helped to save over a million lives worldwide have won a top prize in this year’s BMJ Awards. The Recovery collaborative group’s trial, which was the first to show that the inexpensive steroid dexamethasone improved survival among patients with covid-19 who had severe respiratory complications, was awarded The BMJ ’s research paper of the year.1 It found that dexamethasone reduced the risk of death by a third among patients on ventilators and by almost a fifth among those on oxygen. The award judges praised the “landmark” NHS study. They said, “The setup of …