Add-on treatment with dupilumab may improve lung function in children aged 6-11 years with uncontrolled moderate to severe type 2 inflammatory asthma, results from a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study show.
Improvements in lung function parameters were observed as early as 2 weeks and persisted over the 52-week treatment period among children in the LIBERTY ASTHMA VOYAGE study, according to investigator Leonard B. Bacharier, MD, of Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
"Dupilumab led to clinically meaningful rapid and sustained improvements in lung function parameters," Bacharier said in an online poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, held virtually this year.
The improvements in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and other measures reported for children with moderate to severe asthma who have the type 2 phenotype, which is the most common driver of pediatric asthma, according to Bacharier.
"Many children with moderate to severe asthma have abnormal lung function, and this can be a risk factor for future lung disease in adulthood," Bacharier said in his presentation.
The VOYAGE Continues
The findings presented at the meeting build on another report earlier this year from the LIBERTY ASTHMA VOYAGE study demonstrating that add-on dupilumab treatment led to a significant improvement versus placebo in FEV1 up to 12 weeks.
