Surya Bhatt, MD, MSPH, Reports the Pivotal Phase 3 Findings for Dupilumab as Add-On Treatment for COPD

Dupilumab is in a position to become the first biologic agent approved for treatment of moderate-to-severe COPD and would represent the first new approach to disease management in more than a decade. The fully human monoclonal antibody inhibits both interleukin 4 and 13 (IL-4, IL-13), a mechanism of action demonstrated across the dupilumab development program to decrease type 2 inflammation in patients with atopic or allergic diseases. Identifying the central role of IL-4 and IL 13 in the type 2 inflammatory cascade led to the pivotal studies of inhibiting both as a means of reducing COPD exacerbations in individuals with blood eosinophil of ≥300 cells per mL.

“I think approval of dupilumab will completely change the [treatment] landscape and also offer hope for other biologics entering the therapeutic area. Dupilumab targets and important patient population who have a significant unmet need,” said Bhatt in this interview with Patient Care.

Surya Bhatt, MD, MSPH, is professor in the division of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care medicine, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also the director of the UAB lung imaging lab and medical director of the UAB pulmonary function and exercise physiology lab. In addition, he serves as medical director of the UAL pulmonary rehabilitation program. Bhatt also directs a novel telehealth program directed at providing COPD patients with pulmonary rehabilitation at home with the help of telemonitoring and new technology.

He is coprincipal investigator for the pivotal phase 3 BOREAS and NOTUS clinical trials which serve as the foundation for a supplemental biologics license application set for target action date of September 2024.