First of its Kind Medicine Approved for A Chronic Lung Disease

In the United States, more than 10 million people over the age of 40 live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic lung disease that limits air flow and causes breathing-related symptoms. COPD primarily affects people aged 40 and older, with current and former smokers having a higher risk of developing the disease. Patients with COPD have various symptoms that impact their daily life, including persistent cough and breathlessness. Those living with the disease often experience exacerbations, or flare ups, of their symptoms which may reduce lung function and can impair their ability to perform routine activities such as getting dressed, walking up stairs and going to work. Each time a patient experiences an exacerbation, there may be permanent, irreversible lung damage. Additionally, a subset of people living with COPD also have a high number of a type of white blood cell, called blood eosinophils, that can contribute to COPD. These patients may be at increased risk for exacerbations and even hospitalizations due to their condition. Although there's been some progress in the treatment of COPD, there has been a strong unmet need for novel treatment approaches, particularly for patients with inadequately controlled COPD and an eosinophilic phenotype. A first-of-its-kind treatment was recently approved to use with other medicines and was shown in clinical trials to help reduce COPD exacerbations, while improving patients' ability to breathe and their health-related quality of life. The approval of this innovative treatment provides patients, their caregivers and physicians with a new option to treat this chronic disease. Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan, Dr. MeiLan Han joined us to discuss the impact inadequately controlled COPD has on daily life and a new breakthrough treatment .