New Study Comparing Medication Combinations in Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Actelion Pharmaceutics has undertaken an important new study that compares two medications versus three medications in patients that are newly diagnosed with PAH. Currently we can say with confidence that most patients do better when treated initially with an endothelin receptor antagonist such as Letairis combined with Adcirca (these are results from the AMBITION Study). However, we have some recent data from the GRIPHON Study that suggest that adding a third agent (Uptravi) may improve outcomes further. However, the GRIPHON Study added Uptravi to patients already being treated with one or two medications. In contrast, this new study compares the combination of Opsumit plus Adcirca to the combination of Opsumit plus Adcirca plus Uptravi.
Why is this study important? Each PAH medication is expensive and has side effects. We are not yet sure if it is best to wait for patients to achieve a maximal response to two treatments and then consider adding a third agent or if early addition of a third agent improves outcomes. The key to answering this question is that newly diagnosed patients that are interested in research should seek out study sites prior to beginning any treatment for PAH other than diuretics. Patients that participate in this research study will receive their PAH medications for free as part of the study.
The primary outcome measure of this study is change in pulmonary vascular resistance after 26 weeks of therapy. Patients must have a baseline right heart catheterization and then a repeat right heart catheterization at 26 weeks. Other study endpoints include exercise capacity and BNP.
We are excited to participate in this study. Interested patients can find local study centers by visiting clinicaltrial.gov
