Clinical Burden of People with Symptomatic and Exacerbating COPD While on Triple Inhaled Therapy

Background/Objectives: The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in people who experience frequent moderate/severe exacerbations and frequent productive cough (FPC) while receiving triple inhaled therapy (TT) is poorly described. We aimed to examine clinical characteristics and patient-centric burden of this population. Methods: Data were drawn from the Adelphi COPD Disease-Specific Programme (DSP)™, a multinational cross-sectional survey on COPD (July 2022-January 2023). Patient characteristics and physician perceptions were described for the overall COPD cohort and subsets of those who were current/former Smokers, with ≥2 moderate or ≥1 severe Exacerbation(s) in the prior year while receiving TT and with FPC (SET+FPC) or without FPC (SET w/o FPC). Results: Of the overall cohort (N = 4372), 9.1% (n = 399) patients qualified for inclusion in the SET+FPC cohort; the mean (SD) age was 64.7 (10.9) and 69.1 (9.2) years, respectively. For the overall and SET+FPC cohorts, the mean (SD) number of exacerbations (prior year) was 1.1 (1.4) and 2.5 (1.4), respectively; median post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1% predicted) was 68.0% and 49.0%, respectively, and physician-reported dyspnea grade (based on the modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale) was ≥2 in 36.2% and 78.2%, respectively. Physicians were satisfied with COPD control in 76.1% of the overall and 39.6% of the SET+FPC cohorts. Conclusions: People with COPD who experience frequent moderate/severe exacerbations and FPC while receiving TT have substantial clinical and patient-centric burden and extensive unmet medical needs, suggesting inadequate disease control with current standard-of-care therapies.