Novartis's asthma ‘wonder drug’ basks in the bright spotlight of a UK media frenzy
The British papers love a medical breakthrough almost as much as a political crisis. And that willingness to fawn over efficacy data, even from a small study, was on full display with the recent hype over fevipiprant, Novartis’s pill for severe asthma.
Reporting in the prestigious pages of The Lancet, investigators say that the CRTh2 antagonist – now in Phase III with a 2019 launch date planned – dramatically reduced levels of eosoniphils, a key biomarker for moderate to severe asthma. Adding the drug to standard of care massively reduced the levels of eosinophils, which dropped from an average of 5.4% to 1.1% — nearly normal – in the trial, which enrolled a total of 61 patients.
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