Charg­ing at block­buster Ad­vair, No­var­tis boasts topline vic­to­ries for asth­ma drugs in twin PhI­II stud­ies

In a bit of a Rus­sain nest­ing doll mo­ment, No­var­tis says that its po­ten­tial block­buster asth­ma drug has beat an­oth­er treat­ment from its port­fo­lio, which in turn per­formed bet­ter than a cor­ti­cos­teroid in an­oth­er Phase III study.

An­nounced si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the stud­ies both en­rolled pa­tients whose dis­ease re­mained un­con­trolled de­spite treat­ment and em­ploy im­prove­ment in trough forced ex­pi­ra­to­ry vol­ume in one sec­ond — a stan­dard mea­sure of lung func­tion — af­ter 26 weeks as the pri­ma­ry end­point. That was met, though QVM149 didn’t hit the key sec­ondary end­point re­gard­ing the Asth­ma Con­trol Ques­tion­naire (ACQ-7) while QMF149 did.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER