A triple therapy inhaler may be the best way to help patients with severe and uncontrolled asthma, according to the findings of a major international study.
One triple therapy reduced the number of severe asthma attacks by 15%, according to the findings of the studies conducted over 17 countries.
The findings were reported to the conference of the European Respiratory Society in Madrid, Spain, yesterday and also published in The Lancet.
Researchers ran two trials and the most successful, Trimaran, combined a medium strength dose of corticosteroid, a long-acting beta agonist and a muscarinic antagonist in a single inhaler dose – and involved some 579 patients.
The European study found that triple therapy enabled patients to exhale significantly more air compared with a double therapy.
The Trimaran trial also found the 15% reduction in moderate and severe attack.
Researcher Professor Christian Virchow, from the Rostock University Medical Centre, Germany, said: "The patients in our studies had been using preventer inhalers combining two medicines but they weren’t working as effectively as they do for most asthma sufferers. The effects of triple therapy might seem moderate when you look at the numbers involved, but even incremental improvements can be valuable when there are few treatment options left available."
Fellow researcher Sandrine Corre, from Chiesi Farmaceutici, Italy, funder of the trial, said: "Since the preventive treatment we trialled delivers three drugs via one inhaler, and given the reduction we saw in the annual rate of severe asthma attacks, we expect it will provide an attractive option helping to fulfil an unmet need for both individuals and health systems."
Lancet 30 September 2019
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32215-9/fulltext
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