Recent results from Phase III INPULSIS™ trials indicate that the novel kinase inhibitor, nintedanib, helped to slow the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, the medication’s effect on exacerbations was not as clear.

The results from the trial were published on May 18 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The oral drug is the first targeted treatment for the condition that continually meets the primary endpoint in two International Phase III trials with identical design.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, pulmonary fibrosis is a disease that involves scarring of tissue deep within the lungs. This tissue becomes thick and stiff over time, leading to fibrosis, or the formation of scar tissue. This is a serious disease that primarily affects middle-aged and older adults, with variations in severity from one individual to the next.

Professor Luca Richeldi, study investigator, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Chair of Interstitial Lung Disease at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, said in a statement, “Patients with IPF currently have very limited treatment options and there is a high unmet need for effective treatments that can specifically alter the course of this deadly disease by slowing disease progression.” He continued, “These results should be very welcomed, because for the first time we have a drug that has consistently met the primary endpoint in two large Phase III trials, after the supportive results of the Phase II trial.”

Richeldi continued, “The result on acute exacerbations is of particular clinical importance.” He explained, “Acute exacerbations are rapid and unexplained episodes of deterioration in IPF leading to death in approximately half of the patients.”