Klaus F. Rabe,¹ James Chalmers,² Marc Miravitlles,³ Janwillem Kocks,^4,5 Ioanna Tsiligianni,⁶ Alberto de la Hoz,⁷ Wenqiong Xue,⁸ Jadwiga Wedzicha,⁹ Dave Singh,¹⁰ Gary T. Ferguson¹¹

¹Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Center North, German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Grosshansdorf, Germany; ²Tayside Respiratory Research Group, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom; ³Pneumology Department, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, Spain; ⁴General Practitioners Research Institute, and Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD (GRIAC), University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; ⁵Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore; ⁶Health Planning Unit, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece; ⁷Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany; ⁸Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, CT; ⁹Respiratory Division, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; ¹⁰Medicines Evaluation Unit (MEU), University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom; ¹¹Pulmonary Research Institute of Southeast Michigan, Farmington Hills, MI

Background

A once-daily combination of T/O has previously been demonstrated to improve lung function, breathlessness and quality of life in patients with COPD^1–3
Whether more patients with mild-to-moderate disease or fewer symptoms could benefit from earlier treatment with LAMA/LABA combination therapy is under debate^4–5
The aim of this analysis was to determine whether combination treatment with T/O was more effective than tio alone at delaying CID in COPD patients, in patients with GOLD stage 2 COPD, and in those not previously receiving COPD maintenance therapy (treatment-naïve)

Abbreviations: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CID, clinically important deterioration; LABA, long-acting β₂-agonist; LAMA, long-acting muscarinic antagonist; T/O, tiotropium/olodaterol; tio, tiotropium.