A new study shows that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients may experience the strongest benefits from single-inhaler therapy.
n patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), treatment with single-inhaler fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (FF/UMEC/VI) resulted in more health status improvements and greater lung function benefit compared with multiple-inhaler triple therapy (MITT) with inhaled corticosteroid + long-acting muscarinic antagonist + long-acting beta-agonist (ICS+LAMA+LABA) combination therapy, according to findings intended to be presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference. (Select research is slated to be presented in avirtual format later this year.)
In patients with COPD, use of multiple inhalers is associated with more errors and worse adherence than single-inhaler regimens. However, real-world effectiveness data on the health status of patients using single-inhaler vs multiple-inhaler regimens are lacking. Therefore, researchers conducted a randomized, open-label, phase 4 effective study (INTREPID; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT03467425) to evaluate the effect of a single-inhaler FF/UMEC/VI triple therapy compared with a MITT using ICS+LAMA+LABA on health status, measured with the COPD Assessment Test (CAT), over 24 weeks in 5 European countries. The primary end point was the proportion of CAT responders (≥2 unit decrease in CAT score from baseline at week 24).
