Asthma drug 'gamechanger' could revolutionise treatment
Fevipiprant
trial indicates it could halve patients’ risk of suffering asthma attacks and
being admitted to hospital
A new asthma drug that could revolutionise
the treatment of the 500,000 Britons with moderate or severe versions of the
condition and reduce the number of deaths from has been hailed as a “gamechanger”.
Asthma treatment has barely changed over 20
years, with those who cannot easily control their condition relying on inhalers
or using steroids which carry a high risk of weight gain, diabetes,
osteoporosis and high blood pressure.
The development of the drug, called Fevipiprant, opens up the possibility that
the 250,000 people with this more severe form of the disease could now take a
pill twice a day instead of relying on those methods. It could also benefit at
least another 250,000 people who have the more moderate form of the disease.
The expert in severe breathing conditions who
oversaw the latest trial of the drug said its potential effectiveness was so
great that it could halve both patients’ risk of suffering an asthma attack and
being admitted to hospital.
The clinical trial of Fevipiprant, conducted
by experts at Leicester University, found
that it led to a big drop in the symptoms of asthma, improved sufferers’ lung
function, reduced inflammation of the lungs and also helped to repair the
lining of patients’ airways.
“This new drug could be a gamechanger for
future treatment of asthma”, said Chris Brightling, the senior research fellow
and clinical professor in respiratory medicine at Leicester University who led
the research study. “I’m really excited by this because this is the first
treatment that I’m aware of that has been able to show effects across the
board.
“I’m excited by how effective it’s likely to
be and also about its potential to reduce the need for patients to take oral
steroids. Those people would be able to stop taking those drugs, which would
make a huge difference to them.”
The number of people diagnosed with asthma in
the UK has steadily risen in recent years. Increased air pollution, chlorine in
swimming pools and modern hygiene standards are believed to be some of the
factors in the development of the disease, according to the NHS.
If further trials confirm the drug’s
potential, it could become available to patients on prescription from a doctor
in “more than two but less than three years’ time”, Brightling said. It works by blocking
inflammatory cells from moving from the patient’s blood into the walls of their
airways and separately it speeds up repair of airway linings.
Asthma UK hailed Fevipiprant’s “massive
promise”. Doctors hope it will significantly reduce suffering among those
asthmatics who are at the greatest risk of dying and Britain’s death toll of
1,400 lives a year lost to the condition, two-thirds of which experts believe
are avoidable. While asthma deaths were usually complex, “the introduction of
any new treatment would be likely to reduce asthma deaths but I can’t say by
how much,” Brightling said.
“This research shows massive promise and
should be greeted with cautious optimism,” said Dr Samantha Walker, Asthma UK’s
director of research and policy. However, she added: “More research is needed
and we’re a long way off seeing a pill for asthma being made available over the
pharmacy counter, but it’s an exciting development and one which, in the long
term, could offer a real alternative to current treatments.”
The Leicester trial reported in the Lancet
involved 61 people and was jointly funded by the NHS’s research arm, the
National Institute for Health Research, and the European Union and also
Novartis, the Swiss drug company behind Fevipiprant.
It is a phase-III trial, meaning the drug has
already undergone small-scale safety tests in patients, as well as initial
analysis of any side effects. This trial is aimed at establishing with more
precision how effective the drug is in larger numbers of patients.
Brightling is leading another clinical trial
into Fevipiprant’s effectiveness, which involves 850 patients, though it will
not produce results until 2018, and other studies are planned.
Brightling hopes that, if Fevipiprant proves
effective and is approved by medicines regulators, it will lead to asthmatics
becoming acutely unwell less often and so needing less care, and make asthma
less burdensome for the NHS, which currently spends over £1bn a year treating
it. There are 5.4 million diagnosed asthmatics in the UK, of whom 1.1 million
are under 15. Someone in the UK suffers a life-threatening asthma attack every
ten seconds, Asthma UK says.
A total of 1,418 people died from asthma in
the UK in 2015 – more than three every day. Although 19 were aged 14 and under,
the vast majority were those aged 15 and above. The total figure of 1,418
asthma deaths was 210 higher than the 1,208 seen in 2014. Females are much more
likely to die than males. Last year 1,022 girls and women died compared with
396 boys and men.
However, an audit of asthma deaths found more
than half of those who died were only being treated for mild or moderate asthma
before they passed away. The others were among those with the most severe
asthma which is most resistant to treatment.
“The UK has one of the highest rates of
asthma prevalence in the world with over one million children suffering from
the disease, so this has the potential to make a massive impact on many
children’s lives. Previously, new treatments for asthma required regular
injections, so this is a significant advancement,” said Prof Jonathan Grigg, a
respiratory expert at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. But he
added the study’s small size meant other, larger trials needed to be carried
out to establish whether the drug would be suitable for children.
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