Budesonide, A Common asthma treatment reduces the need for hospitalization in COVID-19 patients, study suggests

Early treatment with a medication commonly used to treat asthma appears to significantly reduce the need for urgent care and hospitalization in people with COVID-19, researchers at the University of Oxford have found. The STOIC study found that inhaled budesonide given to patients with COVID-19 within seven days of the onset of symptoms also reduced recovery time. Budesonide is a corticosteroid used in the long-term management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Findings from the phase 2 randomized study, which was supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), were published on the medRxiv pre-print server. The…