The combination of anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib and the antiviral remdesivir reduced recovery time for people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to clinical trial results published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Researchers conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating baricitinib plus remdesivir in hospitalized adults with COVID-19. All the patients received remdesivir and either baricitinib or a placebo.

A total of 1,033 patients participated in the trial, with 515 being assigned the combination treatment, and 518 to the control group.

Results show the combination of baricitinib and remdesivir reduced the median time of recovery in hospitalized COVID-19 patients from eight to seven days.

Patients who required high-flow oxygen or non-invasive ventilation during their hospitalization appeared to have benefited the most, as their median time to recovery was shortened from 18 to 10 days.

"Baricitinib plus remdesivir was superior to remdesivir alone in reducing recovery time and accelerating improvement in clinical status among patients with COVID-19, notably among those receiving high-flow oxygen or noninvasive ventilation," read the report.

In addition, participants' conditions on day 15 of the study showed significant improvements when they received the two therapeutics combined. Recipients of the two treatments also had slightly fewer serious adverse effects, according to the research.

These results do appear to show that baricitinib plus remdesivir can benefit some COVID-19 patients and the combination deserves further clinical study, according to the researchers.