Adults suffering from severe asthma could soon have new hope in the form of a pill known as Fevipiprant, which in early clinical trials has shown to reduce symptoms such as inflammation in the airways according to a new Lancet Respiratory Medicine study.

Fevipiprant, a prostaglandin D2 receptor 2 antagonist, works by preventing inflammatory cells from reaching a patient’s airways reduces the frequency of severe attacks by half, BBC News and The Telegraph reported Friday. Patients who have uncontrolled asthma and took part in the trial told researchers that their symptoms had improved drastically .

“A unique feature of this study was how it included measurements of symptoms, lung function using breathing tests, sampling of the airway wall, and CT scans of the chest to give a complete picture of how the new drug works,” study author Christopher Brightling, a clinical professor in respiratory Medicine at the University of Leicester, told The Telegraph.

“Most treatments might improve some of these features of the disease, but with Fevipiprant improvements were seen with all of the types of tests,” Brightling added. “This new treatment could help stop preventable asthma attacks, reduce hospital admissions, and improve day-to- day symptoms- making it a ‘game changer’ for future treatment.”

Experts ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the early clinical trial results

He and his colleagues recruited approximately 60 patients who reported having severe asthma symptoms, despite regularly being seen by specialists and using steroid inhalers, and split them into two groups: one of which was given a 225mg of Fevipiprant twice a day for 12 weeks and one of which were given placebo in addition to the drugs they were already taking.

The study found that those who were given the new asthma drug experienced a reduced sputum eosinophil count, meaning that there were fewer inflammatory white blood cells in their phlegm and airways – a symptom commonly used to measure severe asthma. Over the three month span, the sputum eosinophil count of the asthma patients in the Fevipiprant group dropped from 5.4% to 1.1% on average, Brightling and his fellow researchers reported.

While the findings are from an early proof-of-concept study and need to be validated in a long- term trial, Dr. Samantha Walker, Director of Research and Policy at Asthma UK, told reporters that the research “shows massive promise and should be greeted with cautious optimism.”

“The possibility of taking a pill instead of using an inhaler will be a very welcome one,” she added, “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. More research is needed and we’re a long way off seeing a pill for asthma being made available over the pharmacy counter, but it’s an exciting development.”

Professor Stephen Durham, a lung specialist at Royal Brompton Hospital, added that the authors had provided “compelling evidence” that Fevipiprant tablets had “the ability to reduce asthmatic inflammation, increase lung function and improve asthma control in this severe group,” and that it “may also reduce the frequency of asthma attacks, avoid steroid tablet side effects” and reduce the costs of treating severe asthma patients.

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