The most prevalent lung disease in the US and the world is COPD. The annual cost to the health care system is $40 billion per year. Despite the current treatments on the market, it has been 38 years since a new mechanism of action for inhaler therapy has been approved for COPD treatment.
Recently, a new class of inhaled medication for the treatment of COPD specifically targeting exacerbation rate has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The studies on this new medication taken by nebulizer twice a day have shown a 41% reduction in exacerbations for individuals with and without associated chronic bronchitis along with those who did not have evidence of an associated asthmatic condition.
The drug is called ensifentrine (Ohtuvayre). Current research and studies with this drug are helping to define what patients will truly benefit from this therapy. Why is this research so important? This research is important because treatment with ensifentrine via nebulizer has an associated price tag of $2950 per month! No word yet on what insurances like Medicare and Medicaid will pay for this drug. I suspect not much or all of it.
This is the dilemma we as physicians are often faced with. There are medications which may be very helpful for our patients but there is really no practical way they can get them because of cost and even when insurances do pay we all know that we are all getting the bill.
