Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the innovative application of science and medicine to help people with serious medical conditions, recently announced it will be attending the upcoming 2015 American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting (CHEST), taking place October 24 to 28, 2015, in Montreal, Canada. Sunovion will be presenting new Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) findings for its Brovana® (arformoterol tartrate) Inhalation Solution for COPD. The presentation will cover a pair of retrospective database analyses that compared rates of readmission in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients who received treatment with nebulized arformoterol tartrate, compared to inhaled tiotropium or inhaled fluticasone/salmeterol.

Brovana® (arformoterol tartrate) Inhalation Solution is designed as a long-term maintenance therapy, recommended to be administered via nebulizer twice a day to help alleviate bronchoconstriction in patients with COPD, inclusive of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The therapy, according to a company press release, is only to be administered in nebulized form.

Hospital readmissions as a result of serious exacerbations are a major issue in COPD, since frequent trips to the hospital negatively impact quality of life for COPD patients and increase treatment costs for those with the disease. In response to the issue, hospitals are now even being challenged to reduce COPD-related hospital readmissions, and will face fines if they are unable to do so. As a result, biotech companies such as Sunovion believe that therapies like Brovana can help manage exacerbations and curtail hospital visits.

“Despite available treatments, at least 20 percent of all patients hospitalized with COPD will be readmitted within 30 days,” said Krithika Rajagopalan, head of Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research Sunovion, in the press release. “These analyses assess the potential of long-acting bronchodilator nebulization, an often overlooked and underutilized modality, in comparison to other leading inhaled therapies to address hospital readmissions. Sunovion is committed to understanding and sharing critical health outcomes information that may improve current treatment paradigms for COPD patients.”

Sunovion’s presentations during CHEST 2015 are scheduled as follows:

• Hospital Readmissions Among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Treated with Arformoterol or Tiotropium – 3390; October 28, 2015; 1:30-2:30
• Hospital Readmissions Among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Treated with Arformoterol or Fluticasone/Salmeterol – 3391; October 28, 2015; 1:30-2:30

Sunovion believes that its new data on Brovana demonstrates how the therapeutic can have potential benefits in decreasing the need for hospital readmissions in COPD patients, leading to better patient outcomes and lower medical costs.