Effectiveness of Fluticasone Furoate–Vilanterol for COPD in Clinical Practice

In this study of 2799 COPD patients, the rate of moderate or severe exacerbations was reduced from 1.90 a year in the usual care group to 1.74 a year with fluticasone-furoate and vilanterol, representing an 8.4% relative reduction (95% CI 1.1% to 15.9%; P=0.02).

This was a real world controlled effectiveness study carried out in unselected patients from UK general practices, thus providing a way of evaluating drug treatments for use in routine clinical care rather than standard randomised controlled trials.

 

Participants were assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive either combination therapy with 100 mcg of fluticasone furoate and 25 mcg of vilanterol administered once daily as a dry powder through an inhaler (Ellipta, the fluticasone furoate–vilanterol group); or the continuation of usual care as determined by the general practitioner (the usual-care group).

 

These results represent a reduction of approximately 1 exacerbation per 6 patients treated per year.