Bronchodilator Efficacy of a Single-Dose 12/400-μg Formoterol/Budesonide Combination as a Dry Powder for Inhalation Delivered by Discair in Adult Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Stable COPD: Open-Label, Single-Arm, Phase IV Trial

Background and Objectives: A patient-friendly and easy-to-use multi-dose dry powder inhaler, Discair, has been recently developed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the bronchodilator efficacy of a single-dose 12/400-mu g formoterol plus budesonide combination as a dry powder for inhalation delivered by Discair in adult patients with moderate-to-severe, stable, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods: A total of 33 male patients with moderate-to-severe, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were included in this single-arm, open-label, phase IV trial. The primary efficacy parameters were the average maximum change in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1, in L) and time to maximum FEV1 response. Absolute and percent change from baseline in FEV1 and forced vital capacity, maximum change and time to peak forced vital capacity response were also evaluated. Results: The mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 maximum value was significantly higher than the pre-bronchodilator baseline FEV1 value [1.66 (standard deviation 0.43) vs. 1.32 (standard deviation 0.35), p < 0.001], with an absolute change of 0.34 (standard deviation 0.18) and a percent change of 26.0 (standard deviation 0.14) from baseline to maximum response. The average time to peak FEV1 response was 3.94 h (standard deviation 2.75), while the standardized area under the response-time curve from 0 to 12 h for FEV1 was 2.72 (standard deviation 1.84). The FEV1 and forced vital capacity values recorded at each time point during the 12-h post-bronchodilator period were also significantly higher than the baseline values (p < 0.001 for each). Conclusions: Our findings revealed significant changes from baseline in post-bronchodilator peak and average FEV1 and forced vital capacity responses, indicating bronchodilator efficacy of a single-dose 12/400 mu g formoterol plus budesonide dry powder formulation delivered by Discair in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.