New Inhaled Therapy for COPD

A new inhaled therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was introduced during the 12th Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Stockholm (Sweden).

Data presented from clinical studies have shown that the drug, tiotropium, produced significant improvements in COPD patients. One-year trials showed that more patients treated with tiotropium achieved a clinically meaningful improvement in dyspnea and a significant improvement in lung function, compared to patients receiving ipratropium. Benefits in exercise tolerance were also shown.

"Tiotropium offers improvements in exercise tolerance, a key concern for both COPD patients and their clinicians. Increased exercise tolerance means that patients are better able to go about their daily activities with less shortness of breath, an important goal of COPD management,” said Prof. Denis O'Donnell, lead investigator of the exercise study.

The drug was discovered and developed by Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany) and is being marketed with Pfizer, Inc. (New York, NY, USA). The once-daily treatment works through prolonged M3-receptor blockade. Boehinger and Pfizer are launching a large-scale four-year study to evaluate the long-term impact of tiotropium on lung function in COPD patients.




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