UPLIFT Trial Patient Shows Improvement In Lung Function

Boehringer Ingelheim has revealed that the new analysis of the UPLIFT trial, shows that tiotropium administered to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients with moderate disease severity produced significant and sustained improvements in lung function for up to 4 years.

The company said that this pre-specified subgroup analysis involved 2,739 patients treated with a long-acting anticholinergic in a randomised, placebo-controlled study.

Reportedly, the new UPLIFT analysis shows that in patients with Gold Stage II COPD, tiotropium may slow the progression of COPD. Tiotropium reduced the rate of decline in postbronchodilator FEV1 over 4 years compared with control.

The company said that these results are important for clinical practice because it is a long-term study to show that treatment with a long-acting anticholinergic has substantial benefits in patient in the early stages of COPD.

Professor Marc Decramer, UPLIFT lead investigator, professor of medicine and chief of the respiratory division at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven said: UPLIFT has shown that a significant decline in lung function occurs early in the disease, and it is known that exacerbations accelerate disease progression. Therefore this new analysis confirms that we should treat COPD in the early stages with a medication such as tiotropium that can improve lung function and quality of life, and reduce exacerbations.