Effect of Erdosteine on COPD Exacerbations in COPD Patients with Moderate Airflow Limitation

The RESTORE study, a multi-national randomized, placebo-controlled study, showed that erdosteine - a muco-active antioxidant that modulates bacterial adhesiveness - reduced the rate and duration of exacerbations in moderate and severe COPD with a history of exacerbations. How much benefit patients with less severe disease experience when taking this drug remains unclear.

This post hoc analysis of the 254 RESTORE participants with spirometrically-defined moderate COPD (post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV₁] 50‒79% predicted) examined exacerbation rate and duration, time to first exacerbation, and exacerbation-free time. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and comparisons between treatment groups used Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, Mann-Whitney U-tests, or log rank tests.

Patients with moderate COPD received erdosteine 300 mg twice daily (n=126) or placebo (n=128) added to usual COPD therapy for 12 months. During this time, there were 53 exacerbations in the erdosteine group and 74 in the placebo group, with 42.1% and 57.8% of patients, respectively, experiencing an exacerbation. There was a 47% reduction in the mean exacerbation rate with erdosteine compared to placebo (0.27 vs 0.51 exacerbations per-patient per-year, respectively, P=0.003), and a 58.3% reduction in the mild exacerbation rate (0.23 vs 0.53 mild exacerbations per-patient per-year, P=0.001). Mean duration of exacerbations was 26% shorter in erdosteine-treated patients (9.1 vs 12.3 days for placebo, P=0.022), with significant reductions in the duration of mild and moderate-to-severe exacerbations. Mean time to first exacerbation was prolonged by 7.7% (182 days for erdosteine vs 169 days for placebo, P<0.001) and the mean exacerbation-free time was increased by 51 days (279 days for erdosteine vs 228 days for placebo; P<0.001).

These results indicate that adding erdosteine to usual COPD maintenance therapy reduces the number of mild, and duration of all, exacerbations in patients with moderate COPD and a history of exacerbations.