According to trial results, two new drugs offer hope to people with a progressive and fatal disease that make it harder and harder for them to breathe due to lung scars.
The two experimental drugs did not cure the patients but the worsening of their lung function was slowed down. Both nintedanib and pirfenidone appear to decelerate the progress of IPF or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a previously untreatable and incurable disease that stiffens and scars the tissue deep in the lungs.
IPF affects mainly former smokers and men. Those who suffer from this condition have a life expectancy averaging between three and five years. There are 5,000 new IPF cases and about 40,000 deaths each year. According to the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis in Washington, There have been 128,000 Americans diagnosed with IPF.
While lung transplants may save some patients with IPF, many are too ill or old for the procedure. The cause of the lung scarring is still unknown. Smokers and former smokers are more at risk but a lot of people who smoke do not get the disease and many people who suffer from it did not smoke.
The two studies compared the breathing of 638 patients with IPF under the medication with 423 who took a placebo. The breathing was measured by how much air a person expels after their deepest breath. The study showed that the difficulty in breathing of patients on nintedanib was reduced by about half over both studies. The drug might be licensed in 2015 worldwide and available in the market in the future.
''In contrast to most cancers, there has been limited, and sometimes conflicting evidence that any drug could alter the course of this disease,'' Physician Gary M. Hunninghake from Women's Hospital in Boston wrote. "The game has now changed."
The medicine is manufactured by Brisbane-based Intermune and was rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010. The makers requested for another trial to prove that it works. In February 2014, the company announced its plans to file for U.S. clearance in the third quarter of the year based on its most recent research.
