Filipinos suffering from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a debilitating and fatal lung disease with a median survival of 2-3 years after diagnosis, now find a new way to treat IPF with the recent approval and local availability of OFEV (nintedanib) in the Philippines.
A progressive and life-threatening lung disease, IPF causes permanent scarring of the lungs and impedes breathing by decreasing the amount of oxygen that the lungs can supply to the major organs of the body. Individuals with IPF may experience symptoms such as breathlessness during activity, a dry and persistent cough, chest discomfort and finger clubbing globally, IPF affects as many as 14-43 people per 100,000 worldwide, primarily affecting patients over the age of 50, prevalent in more men than women.
Meanwhile, according to Dr. Dina V. Diaz, head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the Lung Center of the Philippines, current prevalence of IPF in the Philippines remains unclear because of the rarity of cases and difficulty in diagnosis.
Indeed, Dr. Diaz shared that accurate diagnosis of IPF can be difficult as it requires specific testing, resulting in initial misdiagnosing occuring in half of patients because symptoms are similar to respiratory diseases like COPD, asthma, congestive heart failure, tuberculosis and pneumonia. The standard for IPF diagnosis often requires a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) consisting of clinicians, radiologists, pulmonologists, and histopathologists to reach the correct IPF diagnosis; MDT diagnosis is important as it improves patient management and avoids unnecessary testing.
Dr. Diaz said there’s no known medical cure yet that can completely reverse the disease; its treatment options are also limited to lung transplant, stressing the high unmet need for safe and effective treatments that can alter the course of IPF. “IPF is chronic and irreversible; there’s yet to be a medical treatment that is proven to reverse the disease. For a long time, treatment is limited to relieving symptoms and slowing disease progression,” said Dr. Diaz.
But Filipinos suffering from IPF now have better means to manage the disease with the recent local approval and availability of nintedanib. Nintedanib targets growth factor receptors, which have shown to be involved in the mechanisms by which IPF occurs. It is believed that nintedanib reduces disease progression in IPF and slows the decline in lung function by blocking the multiple pathways that are involved in scarring processes.
“Approval of this treatment is a significant milestone towards helping the local health sector in expanding the current treatment options available for IPF; but above all it’s a notable advancement in improving the quality of life of Filipinos with this rare disease,” said Dr. Diaz.
Approval is based on results from the replicate Phase III Inpulsis trials, involving 1,066 patients from 24 countries, including Asia. Results showed that OFEV slowed disease progression by reducing the annual rate of decline in lung function by 50 percent in a broad range of IPF patient types including patients with early disease. Only OFEV also significantly reduces the risk of acute IPF exacerbations by 47 percent, as demonstrated by evidence from the pooled analysis of the Tomorrow and Inpulsis trials.
The recommended dose of OFEV is 150mg twice daily, administered approximately 12 hours apart, with option to reduce dose to 100mg twice daily to manage side effects.