Tools that make life easier for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are prized possessions. One of them is the recently updated version of the COPD Pocket Consultant Guide from the COPD Foundation. I was fortunate to be asked to help beta test the updated guide, which helps those who wish to collect and analyze their daily statistics. I must confess that I’m not one of those people, but I still find the guide useful. The app is free to download at the Google Play Store for Android phone users and at the Apple App Store for iPhone users. An excellent feature of this newer ..read more

Permanent night shift work is associated with a nearly 50% higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) relative to day work, according to a large study of U.K. data. The risk of COPD was even higher among permanent night shift workers with high genetic susceptibility to the chronic lung disease, who had a 90% higher risk compared with day workers with low genetic risk. These findings suggest that night shift work may be a risk factor for COPD and that “decreasing the frequency and duration of night shifts may offer a promising approach to mitigating respiratory dise ..read more

Apogee Therapeutics has begun dosing healthy volunteers in a Phase 1 clinical trial of APG808, the company’s anti-inflammatory injection therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and other inflammatory disorders. “Launching our second clinical program, ahead of initial timeline expectations, brings us one step closer to providing potentially best-in-class biologics designed to significantly improve therapeutic options for patients with [inflammatory and immunologic] diseases, and further builds our track record of execution,” Michael Henderson, MD, CEO of Apogee, said ..read more

For years, I got up in the morning and coughed and gagged, feeling like my throat was closing. Then I’d get a prickly feeling in my arms and back, like when your circulation gets cut off and a body part goes to sleep. The medical term for this tingly feeling is paresthesia. Thanks to my chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment, I thought those days were an ancient memory — until I recently forgot to use my inhaler. I follow a morning routine that helps me remember to take my medications, but it was interrupted by a phone call, and I didn’t remember where I was in my routine when ..read more

Out-of-pocket costs for AstraZeneca’s inhaled respiratory therapies — most of which are used for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — will be capped at $35 per month for eligible patients in the U.S. starting in June, the company announced in a press release. This cap, likely to benefit most commercially insured patients, comes as an expansion of AstraZeneca’s savings program in the U.S. for its entire portfolio of approved inhaled respiratory therapies. This includes the COPD medications Symbicort (budesonide-formoterol), Bevespi Aerosphere (glycopyrronium/formoterol fumarate), and ..read more

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with corticosteroids. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. At some point, most people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have had to take a corticosteroid, a type of anti-inflammatory drug. It can be delivered orally as a pill or a liquid, inhaled from a nebulizer or inhaler, or used as a nasal spray. In this column, I’ll look at some common corticosteroids and their potential side effects. One of the first corticosteroids that comes to my mind i ..read more

I recently received a call from my oxygen provider asking if I’d be home the next day. They wanted to bring me a new stationary oxygen concentrator, also known as a home oxygen concentrator. Durable medical equipment providers (DMEs) rent those of us with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are on oxygen a home concentrator for five years. Then, we’re eligible to receive a new one. Medicaid reimburses the provider for the first three years of rental fees. After that, any service the DMEs provide is not reimbursed, meaning, neither Medicaid nor I must pay for services until I get ..read more

A first patient has been treated in a pivotal clinical trial of Pulmonx’s AeriSeal System, testing its ability to limit collateral ventilation in people with severe emphysema, a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These patients currently are precluded from using the company’s minimally invasive Zephyr Endobronchial Valve, a medical device approved in the U.S. for people with severe emphysema who have difficulty breathing. It has been shown that Zephyr Valve use can lead to sustained improvements in lung function, exercise capacity, and quality of life in people wi ..read more

Having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) makes us patients more susceptible to lung infections. These infections can creep up on us quickly and progress to a severe condition in just a few days. This was the case for me two summers ago. During my hospital stay, I was given six treatments of chemotherapy. The nurse told me I was being given it because I had skin cancer removed. The doctor then clarified that the treatment aimed to reduce the inflammation. The doctor’s explanation was quite a relief as I knew they were investigating a spot on my lung. After treatment, when I wanted t ..read more

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ request for a label extension for Dupixent (dupilumab) to include it as an add-on treatment for certain adults with uncontrolled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The therapy’s potential sixth indication in the U.S. is specific to COPD patients with type 2 inflammation, which is thought to contribute to lung inflammation in the disease. The application was placed under priority review, which is granted to therapies that have the potential to provide significant improvements for treatin ..read more