Asthma Drug Fluticasone Fails as Potential COVID-19 Treatment

THURSDAY, July 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) — The asthma drug fluticasone furoate is yet another medication that does not work for mild-to-moderate COVID-19, a new study finds. The study was published online July 13 in medRxiv, which publishes studies before they have been peer-reviewed.

“There was no evidence of improvement in time to recovery or reduction in hospitalizations in participants who took fluticasone furoate versus those who took a placebo,” lead researcher Adrian Hernandez, M.D., executive director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, said in a Duke news release.

The finding comes from a nationwide study of nearly 5,000 participants that continues to evaluate the potential benefit of existing drugs to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Fluticasone furoate is one of three U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved repurposed medications currently being tested against COVID-19.

Fluticasone furoate is an inhaled corticosteroid used to treat asthma, but it is not approved to treat COVID-19. This drug was tested because corticosteroids had seemed potentially beneficial for treating COVID-19 among nonhospitalized patients. Based on the findings, fluticasone furoate should not be used to treat COVID-19, the researchers stressed.

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