Qva149 Compared With Salmeterol/Fluticasone (Sfc) On Exacerbations And Its Correlation With Baseline Blood Eosinophils: A Pooled Analysis Of Lantern And Illuminate

Introduction: This pooled analysis compared the incidence of moderate or severe COPD exacerbations with QVA149 vs We also investigated if baseline blood eosinophil (EOS) count was a predictor of exacerbation risk, and magnitude of treatment effect on this risk. Methods: All patients (pts) from two 26-week double-blind studies were included in this analysis. 1263 moderate-to-severe COPD pts with ≤1 exacerbation in the previous year were randomised (1:1) to QVA149 or Results: In the overall pool, the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations was significantly lower with QVA149 vs SFC (RR [95% CI]: 0.67 [0.48-0.94]; p=0.021). There was a trend (p=0.08) towards increased exacerbation rate with increased baseline blood EOS count. In pts with baseline blood EOS count of 3 and 150-300/mm 3 , QVA149 showed 45% and 43% reduction in the risk of exacerbations, respectively compared to SFC (Figure 1). In pts with u003e300/mm 3 blood EOS at baseline (12% of study population), risk of exacerbations was lower with SFC. Conclusion: QVA 149 was more effective in reducing exacerbation risk in pts with baseline blood eosinophil 3 (88% of pool) and SFC in pts with u003e300/mm 3 (12% of pool). These data suggest that baseline blood eosinophil count may be a useful biomarker in assessing potential benefit of QVA149 over SFC in reducing exacerbations in COPD patients.