Author Archives: Maureen Newman

A currently recruiting Phase 2 clinical trial from Sanofi, “Efficacy and Safety of SAR156597 in the Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (ESTAIR),” will be investigating how a novel antibody treatment may help patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The novel therapeutic,…

The American Thoracic Society (ATS) now recommends that some patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are eligible to be treated with Genentech’s Esbriet ® (pirfenidone). The conditional recommendation was based on three Phase 3 clinical trials of Esbriet vs. placebo in patients with IPF. In these…

Pharmaxis Ltd. and Synairgen plc are entering into a research collaboration to develop a therapeutic for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The two companies are researching a selective inhibitor of the lysyl oxidase type 2 enzyme (LOXL2), an enzyme shown to promote scar tissue and damage in the lungs of IPF…

An accumulation of data from multiple different studies supports the use of pirfenidone (Esbriet, from Roche) to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. One study in Belgium and the Netherlands demonstrated strong safety and efficacy profiles, and two more studies in the United States suggested a reduction in disease progression following treatment.

A protein expressed solely by cells lining the airways is at the center of an interesting new strategy that may help fight pulmonary fibrosis. The protein, secretoglobin (SCGB) 3A2, was investigated during a recent study conducted by the Laboratory of Metabolism at the National Cancer Institutes in the National Institutes of…

Dr. Claudia A. Staab-Weijnitz and Dr. Oliver Eickelberg at the Comprehensive Pneumology Center in the University of Munich are studying a new drug target for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that addresses a protein potentially involved in the pathway of IPF pathogenesis. By attenuating the protein in a model of IPF,…

ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. recently validated the potential for its experimental drug target PBI-4050 to treat patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Two presentations at the 2015 European Renal Association Annual Meeting identified that PBI-4050 reduces fibrosis in human cells. “Our data correlates the regulation activity of PBI-4050 on key fibrotic…

Building a new set of lungs for patients with pulmonary fibrosis is becoming closer to reality as a result of cutting-edge research in the field of tissue engineering. At the forefront of this endeavor is Cheryl Nickerson, PhD, an expert in infectious diseases and vaccinology at Arizona State University Biodesign Institute.

Hard at work in the laboratory of Dr. Christine Kim Garcia, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is a group of researchers studying familial pulmonary fibrosis. The disease is characterized by fatal lung scarring and is now associated with mutations in two genes: PARN and RTEL1.

Boehringer Ingelheim, a leader in developing treatments for lung diseases, sponsored a phase 2 clinical trial investigating four doses of BIBF 1120 (nintedanib) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The primary goal of “Safety…