Europe must prepare for COPD ‘timebomb’
pharmafile | November 19, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â COPD, Europe, European COPD Coalition, Spiriva, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseÂ
Health services in Europe are not making sufficient effort to cope with the escalating burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a patient group.
A survey carried out by the European COPD Coalition has found that public awareness of COPD remains low, even though the disease affects around 10% of Europeans and kills 64 million people a year worldwide.
COPD is the only cause of death whose incidence worldwide is rising, and according to Catherine Hartmann – secretary general of the European COPD Coalition – mortality from COPD in Europe is now equivalent to ‘three Hiroshima bombs per year.’
The poll of national COPD organisations in 11 European countries – released this morning to mark World COPD Day – suggested that more than 60% of national health services consider COPD a low or very low priority. Just over 6% of respondents felt that their country had a good strategy in place to reduce COPD.
Four out of five organisations surveyed believed that their countries would benefit from greater public awareness of the problem, and it universally agreed that consumers were far less knowledgeable about COPD than other respiratory disorders such as asthma.
Lack of awareness is a major problem because COPD is often misdiagnosed and confused with asthma and – while the disease cannot be cured – it can be managed with treatment and lifestyle changes.
Quitting smoking, being more physically active and breathing exercises, along with pharmacological therapies, can help slow down disease progression and prevent flare-ups.
“The results of this survey show that very few healthcare systems are addressing the problem adequately,” says Hartmann. “It is the responsibility of health policy makers to provide the right framework of care to improve the health, quality of life and wellbeing of people with COPD.”
The total COPD related expenses for outpatient care in the EU is approximately €4.7 billion per year, according to a data from the European Respiratory Society (ERS).
Among the available drug therapies for COPD, GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair (salmeterol and fluticasone) currently leads the market with $8 billion in sales last year, followed by Boehringer Ingelheim’s Spiriva (tiotropium) and AstraZeneca’s Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol).
A series of novel therapies for COPD are also rolling out into the market, notably GSK and Theravance’s Anoro (umeclidinium bromide and vilanterol) and Novartis’ Ultibro (glycopyrronium bromide/indacaterol), as well as Boehringer’s Striverdi (olodaterol) which should be joined shortly by a combination tiotropium/olodaterol product.
Other new drugs in late-stage testing for COPD include interleukin-5 inhibitors, such as AZ’s benralizumab, GSK’s mepolizumab and Teva’s reslizumab, thought to work by depleting the body of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell linked to exacerbations inflammatory diseases.
Phil Taylor
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