A study has determined that the drug Feviprant is effective in reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation in patients with mild-to-severe asthma and could improve asthma treatment.
Alongside a reduction of exacerbations, hospitalisation and mortality rates in patients with the condition, the drug could offer an alternative treatment with reduced side effects.
Published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the study used a randomised, parallel-group, placebo controlled trial and recruited patients with persistent, moderate-to-severe asthma and an elevated sputum eosinophil count.
Between February 2012 and January 2013, 61 patients were randomly assigned either Feviprant or a placebo. Between baseline and 12 weeks after treatment the sputum eosinophil percentage decreased from a geometric mean of 5.4% to 1.1% in the Feviprant group – compared to the placebo group which reduced from 4.6% to 3.9%. Feviprant therefore reduced sputum eosinophil percentage by 4.5 times.
Feviprant was not associated with any adverse events or deaths during the course of the study. The associated risks with inhaler and steroid use could therefore be avoidable in future.
Chris Brightling, the senior research fellow and clinical professor in respiratory medicine at Leicester University who led the research study, noted “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 Feviprant study was a core part of the EU-funded AirPROM project, which the European Respiratory Society and European Lung Foundation were partners in.