NEW ORLEANS – When looking specifically at the subgroup patients with no recent exacerbations, in patients with moderate to very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), an analysis of the phase 3 KRONOS study shows.
Dr. Fernando Martinez
For that subgroup of patients with no moderate to severe exacerbations in the past year, BGF MDI was associated with a nominally significant reduction in the rate of subsequent COPD exacerbations, compared with glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate (GFF) MDI, according to investigator Fernando J. Martinez MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York.
Results for the COPD patients with no recent history of exacerbation were consistent with the overall results of KRONOS, suggesting that the benefits of BGF MDI shown in that study were not driven by patients with a recent exacerbation history, Dr. Martinez said at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.
“It was clear that the effect of this particular triple did not really appear to be dramatically different by the prior history or not in the comparison of the triple versus dual bronchodilator,” he said in a late-breaking clinical trial session.
About three-quarters of the patients in KRONOS (1,411 out of 1,896) lacked a recent exacerbation history. These patients had a mean age of 65.5 years, 72.8% were male, and 69.9% used inhaled corticosteroids at screening, which are demographics were similar to the overall KRONOS patient population, Dr. Martinez said.
In this subset of patients with no recent exacerbation history, treatment with BGF MDI significantly reduced the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations, compared with GFF MDI, with a treatment incidence rate ratio of 0.52 (95% confidence interval, 0.37-0.72; P = .0001).
“The results were remarkably similar,” Dr. Martinez said. “I was surprised, to be honest with you, when I saw these results. I did not anticipate that would be the case.”
By contrast, BGF MDI did not significantly reduce the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations, compared with budesonide/formoterol fumarate (BFF) MDI or open-label budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate dry-powder inhaler (BUD/FORM DPI) as studied in KRONOS, Dr. Martinez said.
The change from baseline in morning predose trough forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) at week 24 was significantly improved for BGF MDI, compared with BFF MDI and BUD/FORM DPI, but not compared with GFF MDI, according to the investigator. Similarly, the FEV1 area under the curve from 0 to 4 hours was significantly improved for BGF MDI, compared with BFF MDI and BUD/FORM DPI, but not compared with GFF MDI.
Dr. Martinez reported disclosures related to AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Sunovion, and Teva.
SOURCE: Martinez FJ et al. CHEST 2019, Abstract.