Promising Efficacy and Tolerability for Novel Combination COPD Therapy
Sosei Group Corporation ("Sosei"; TSE Mothers Index: 4565) announce that Novartis have presented the results of their two Phase II studies evaluating the efficacy, safety and tolerability of QVA149 at the annual congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Vienna. QVA149 is a novel once-daily, dry powder fixed dose bronchodilator combination of the once-daily beta2-agonist QAB149 (indacaterol) and the LAMA, NVA237 (glycopyrronium bromide) for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
NVA237 was licensed to Novartis by Sosei and Vectura in 2005 in a deal in which the two companies could receive up to US$375 million in milestones as well as royalties on product sales.
One of the randomised, cross-over double-blind, placebo-controlled studies compared inhaled administration of QVA149 300/50 (QAB149 300 micrograms + NVA237 50 micrograms) with two doses of QAB149 (300 micrograms, 600 micrograms) to evaluate bronchodilatory effect in terms of trough FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) after 7 days of therapy. One hundred and thirty-five patients with moderate to severe COPD completed the study with an observed clinically relevant mean improvement in trough FEV1 between QVA149 and placebo on Day 7 of 226 mL. Similarly, the estimated mean treatment differences between QVA149 and QAB149 300 micrograms and 600micrograms were 123 mL and 117 mL, respectively. Similar results were observed on Day 1 of the study and both QVA149 and QAB149 were well tolerated.