(Reuters Health) - An experimental treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can stall the degradation of forced vital capacity (FVC) both in patients who are undergoing therapy and among those who are not receiving antifibrotics, according to a phase 2 test of 147 volunteers.
"In the IPF field we've seen a handful of failures in the last five years, so to see a trial that so convincingly meets its pre-specified endpoint is, for me as a treating clinician, very exciting," senior author Dr. Toby Maher of the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. "It gives us our confidence back that we may have a treatment we can take forward into the clinic."
The study, whose results were unveiled Sunday at the American Thoracic Society's 2022 International Conference and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, assessed an oral therapy designated BI 1015550, which is being developed by Boehringer Ingelheim. The company paid for the study and its statisticians analyzed the data.
The company said it expects to begin phase 3 tests later this year.
According to the new results, after 12 weeks of the oral treatment, FVC readings increased from baseline by 5.7 ml among patients who were not getting background antifibrotic therapy and by 2.7 ml for patients who were receiving nintedanib or pirfenidone.
