Efficacy of indacaterol is maintained in patients with moderate or less and severe or worse COPD

Introduction: Indacaterol is a once-daily inhaled β2-agonist bronchodilator for COPD.\n\nAim: Pooled analysis to determine if efficacy of indacaterol was maintained in subgroups of patients (pts) with moderate or less (“mod”) and severe or worse (“sev”) COPD.\n\nMethods: Data from 4082 pts in 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of indacaterol 150 & 300μg od, tiotropium (TIO) 18μg od (open-label), formoterol (FOR) 12μg bid & salmeterol (SALM) 50μg bid were pooled; 58% pts had “mod” (GOLD stages II or less), 42% “sev” COPD (GOLD III+). Endpoints at 6 mo: trough FEV1, transition dyspnoea index (TDI) & St George's Resp Questionnaire (SGRQ) total scores. The% of pts with clinically important difference in TDI & SGRQ were analysed as odds ratios (OR).\n\nResults: Differences vs placebo (n=675 “mod”, n=509 “sev”) (*p<0.05, **p<0.01, \\***|p≤0.001) in subgroups with “mod” and “sev” COPD severity (†p<0.05 vs TIO, ‡p<0.05 vs formoterol, §p<0.05 vs SALM, ¶p<0.05 vs indacaterol 150μg).\n\nView this table:\n\n\n\nConclusions: Indacaterol improved FEV1 & clinical outcomes after 6 mo irrespective of COPD severity. Indacaterol 300μg was notably effective for breathlessness in the more severe subgroup.