A TWICE-a-day pill that dramatically reduces the severity of asthma attacks has been developed by British scientists.
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It is thought this new twice-a-day pill – the first in nearly 20 years – could revolutionise the way the respiratory disease is treated.
In addition to lacking the harmful effects of steroids, Fevipiprant could slash the numbers of asthma attacks suffered by patients and greatly improve the quality of life of around 250,000 people who suffer from severe forms of the condition.
She said: “The possibility of taking a pill instead of using an inhaler will be very welcome among the 5.4 million people in the United Kingdom with asthma, particularly as this study focused on people who develop the condition in later life, some of whom we know can struggle with the dexterity required to use an inhaler”.
Asthma charities said the new medication showed ‘massive promise, ‘ while sufferers trialing the drug said it had changed their lives.
Professor Brightling ran the trial with 61 patients.
Half the group were given the Fevipiprant pill for three months on top of their usual medications and the other half continued to take their normal medication as well as a placebo pill.
The study, which was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, analysed the inflammation of white blood cells in the lungs – which rose with the severity of asthma. For people with asthma, a sputum eosinophil reading will typically be around five percent, compared to people without asthma, who have readings that are lower than one percent.
A treatment called fevipiprant eased asthma symptoms, improved lung function, reduced inflammation and repaired the lining of airways, researchers reported on Friday.
Professor Chris Brightling, who has been involved in the trial at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, said: “It improved symptoms, it improved the breathing tests, it improved inflammation”.
The study was designed primarily to examine the effects on inflammation in the airway by measuring the sputum eosinophil count.
The research was funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the EU (AirPROM), and is described by the lead researcher as “a game changer for future treatment of asthma”.
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Patient Gaye Stokes, 54 from Grantham, Lincolnshire, who has had severe asthma for 16 years, said: “I knew straight away I had been given the drug. I had more get up and go, I was less wheezy and for the first time in years, I felt really, really well”. When a person with asthma comes into contact with something that irritates their sensitive airways it causes the body to react in several ways which can include wheezing, coughing and can make breathing more hard, researchers said.
