The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7205 p11
6 July 2002

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Long-acting bronchodilator improves exercise tolerance in COPD

A new long-acting inhaled bronchodilator, tiotropium, has been found to improve exercise tolerance by over 20 per cent in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to results presented at the COPD3, International Meeting on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, held in Birmingham last month.

Exercise intolerance is characteristic of advancing COPD, with resulting lower levels of exercise leading to deconditioning. In a double-blind, controlled trial 187 patients were assigned to receive either tiotropium 18µg daily or placebo. They were allowed to continue taking regular pulmonary medication, including inhaled beta-agonist bronchodilators, oxygen, steroids and theophylline, but not inhaled anticholinergic bronchodilators.

Mean baseline endurance time was 491.7 seconds. The difference in endurance time between tiotropium and placebo was 66.8 seconds at week three and 105.2 seconds by week six (P=0.0098). Tiotropium reduced breathlessness experienced by these patients taking exercise. Professor O'Donnell, Queen's University Ontario, Canada, involved in the research, said that these results were akin to those found with exercise training and that tiotropium appeared to be effective in relieving symptoms and increasing activity levels in COPD.

Tiotropium is expected to be launched in the United Kingdom this autumn. It is being developed by Boehringer Ingelheim and co-promoted by Pfizer and Boehringer.