Background and objective: This study, in a predominantly Chinese population, investigated the efficacy and safety of a once-daily (o.d.) inhaled ultra-long-acting β2 -agonist indacaterol for the treatment of moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods: This is a 26-week, double-blind study on randomized patients who received indacaterol 150 μg or 300 μg or placebo o.d. The primary variable was trough forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1 , average of 23 h 10 min and 23 h 45 min post-dose values) at Week 12. Health status (St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, SGRQ), dyspnoea (transition dyspnoea index, TDI) and safety were evaluated over 26 weeks.
Results: Of the 563 patients randomized, 561 (89.8% Chinese) received treatment and 482 completed. At Week 12, trough FEV1 improved significantly for indacaterol 150 and 300 μg versus placebo (1.32, 1.29 vs 1.17; P < 0.001 for both comparisons), with differences exceeding the pre-specified minimal clinically important difference of 0.12 L. At Week 26, TDI score was superior to placebo for indacaterol 150 and 300 μg (0.82, 1.15; P < 0.01), as was the percentage of patients with a clinically relevant improvement (≥1 point) (74.1%, 78.6% vs 55.5%; P < 0.05). Both doses provided ≥4-point improvements from baseline in SGRQ score at Week 26 that were numerically greater than placebo (unadjusted means: -9.6, -8.8 vs -7.0), with a similar pattern in percentage of patients with clinically relevant improvements in SGRQ score (65.0%, 61.5% vs 60.6%). Incidences of adverse events were comparable across treatment groups.
Conclusions: Indacaterol delivered effective bronchodilation with significant improvements in breathlessness and health status in this predominantly Chinese population.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00792805.
Keywords: Chinese; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; efficacy; indacaterol; safety.
© 2014 The Authors. Respirology © 2014 Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.