Asthma Drug Reduces Covid Hospitalizations, Study Finds

Pulmicort, asthma treatment AstraZeneca Plc, reduced the need for urgent care and hospitalization for COVID-19 patients in a small study, joining a group of potentially promising treatments for the disease.

Early treatment with this inhaled medicine, also known as budesonida, reduces the relative risk of such interventions by 90% over the 28-day study period, according to research from the University of Oxford, Astra partner in the development of a vaccine against covid-19. Participants also stopped having fever and other symptoms more quickly.

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The findings offer another example of an existing low-cost drug showing benefits in patients with COVID-19, while other more complex treatments face setbacks. One of the biggest successes to date has been dexamethasone, a steroid that reduces the risk of death in a third of ventilator patients.

“I am encouraged that a relatively safe, widely available, and well-studied drug, such as an inhalable steroid, can impact the pressures we face during the pandemic.Study chief Mona Bafadhel, of the Nuffield College medical department, said in a statement.

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The British study only involved 146 people. Half received the drug twice a day and the rest received usual care. The trial began after the researchers realized that fewer patients with chronic respiratory disease, who were often prescribed inhaled steroids, were among hospitalized patients at the start of the pandemic, according to a statement.