7 million US children have asthma; 1 in 5 of those have sought care for asthma in the emergency department and nearly half have missed school secondary to symptoms.¹ Multiple studies had demonstrated the utility of inhaled corticosteroids in treatment of chronic persistent asthma of all severities and that the majority of these benefits were gained if treatment was initiated within 2 years of symptom onset.² However, the benefit in the subset of patients with recent onset, persistent mild disease was unknown.

Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted across 499 sites in 32 countries from 1996 to 1998.