Sanofi’s prescription medicine Dupixent has helped patients with chronic lung disorders breathe better and regain lung function, opening a new avenue of growth for the blockbuster medicine, and paving the way for optimism for COPD sufferers.
The asthma injection has shown promising results in a final-stage study of almost 1 000 current or former smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an ailment for which no new treatment approach has succeeded in more than a decade, Sanofi said.
The medicine, developed with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, has succeeded where others have failed, including AstraZeneca’s Fasenra and GSK’s Nucala, reports BusinessLIVE.
The positive data could herald a new era of cutting edge treatments for the life-threatening respiratory affliction.
Dupixent, which is already prescribed for asthma and some skin conditions, showed a 30% reduction in the rate at which patients’ COPD worsened compared with those who received a placebo during an advanced trial called Boreas.
Dupixent has improved people’s lung function and quality of life, showing results that are “unprecedented and potentially paradigm shifting”, said Dietmar Berger, Sanofi’s chief medical officer.
Sanofi will probably need Dupixent to also perform well in a related trial before it can apply for regulatory approval, said Tim Anderson, an analyst at Wolfe Research. That study, called Notus, is not likely to yield results until 2024.
Common among current and former smokers, among others, COPD damages the lungs and can cause persistent coughing and breathlessness, along with anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances.
Dupixent is the first biologic to treat COPD by showing significant reduction (30%) in exacerbations in pivotal trial, compared with placebo; and the first to show rapid and significant improvement in lung function (160 mL in FEV1) compared to placebo (77 mL in FEV1) and in respiratory symptoms.
COPD is the third leading cause of death worldwide with no new treatment approaches approved in more than a decade.
It is also the seventh disease in which Dupixent has shown positive pivotal results, confirming the key role of IL-4 and IL-13 in these type 2 inflammatory diseases
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200-year-old race-based COPD diagnostic formula shown to be inadequate
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