MedWire News: Treatment with budesonide is not associated with an increased risk for pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma, research shows.

“In COPD, some clinical trials have reported an increased incidence of pneumonia for patients receiving inhaled corticosteroids (ICS),” explained lead researcher Don Sin (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) at Chest 2009 in San Diego, California USA.

To investigate further, the team studied the pooled results from seven placebo-controlled trials, involving 7042 participants, of budesonide/formoterol or budesonide alone for treatment of COPD.

The researchers compared the incidence of pneumonia adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs) between patients receiving budesonide and those receiving non-ICS treatments.

They also assessed pneumonia risk associated with ICS treatment in the START (Steroid Treatment As Regular Therapy) 2 study, which compared budesonide with placebo in 7221 patients with mild, persistent asthma.

In the COPD studies, the incidence of pneumonia AEs was the same in budesonide-treated and non-ICS-treated patients, at 3.2%, over 1 year. The incidence of pneumonia SAEs was also similar, at 1.4% and 1.5%, respectively.

In START2, pneumonia was reported in 0.8% of budesonide-treated and 1.4% of placebo-treated patients over 3 years. Pneumonia rates after 3 years were 2.4% and 3.1%, respectively.

Sin concluded: “Budesonide is not associated with an increased risk of pneumonia in COPD or asthma.

“The incidence of pneumonia is three times higher in COPD than in asthma, possibly because the patients are older and have lower lung function.”

He added: “These results support the safety of budesonide in COPD patients and suggest that COPD patients are at increased risk of pneumonias.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2009

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