Novartis seeks approval for new smoker's cough drug

[xg4bx]

Swiss drugmaker Novartis said it has applied to start selling its experimental drug to treat smoker's cough -- which afflicts 80 million people worldwide -- after tests showed that it helped patients breathe more easily.

Analysts say Novartis could earn billions of dollars if its treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), commonly known as smoker's cough, win regulatory approval. NVA237 alone could potentially add $500 million in annual sales.

Novartis seeks approval for new smoker's cough drug - Yahoo! News

thats billions with a B. of course we know that smokers cough can be fixed by switching to e-cigs but big pharma wouldn't get their fat stacks of cash. they just keep on dancin' around the cure. they've got a gum for this, a pill for that, an inhaler for the other thing. all the while people keep dying. plenty of treatments but they fight tooth&nail to keep the cure out of peoples hands.

 

[dee5]

Granted switching to ecigs may help a user avoid developing COPD but I think the Pulmonologist I work for would say that once you have it, there is no "cure" (unless this drug is it). COPD cannot be "cured" by switching to an ecig, but it won't get worse and the symptoms may even improve slightly.

 

[rothenbj]

I don't know Dee, I was coughing pretty regularly before I quit smoking and after RIP was added to cigs. The cough went away pretty quick once I stopped inhaling smoke and I didn't need another miracle drug with a miserable success rate from Big Pharma to accomplish that. I think if it was a successful COPD medication they'd be advertising it as such. To me it looks like a marketing masterpiece in the making, masking a warning sign that could convince a smoker that it is time to look for alternatives.

 

[dee5]

My main issue is with this misleading phrase:
(COPD), commonly known as smoker's cough,
and how OP believes it "can be fixed by switching to ecigs".

I have never heard COPD referred to as "smokers cough". It is much more than that: (from Wikipedia)

COPD is the co-occurrence of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed.[1] This leads to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs, causing shortness of breath (dyspnea). In clinical practice, COPD is defined by its characteristically low airflow on lung function tests.[2] In contrast to asthma, this limitation is poorly reversible and usually gets progressively worse over time.

Common signs are:
tachypnea, a rapid breathing rate
wheezing sounds or crackles in the lungs heard through a stethoscope
breathing out taking a longer time than breathing in
enlargement of the chest, particularly the front-to-back distance (hyperaeration)
active use of muscles in the neck to help with breathing
breathing through pursed lips
increased anteroposterior to lateral ratio of the chest (i.e. barrel chest

Of course quitting smoking is going to help your cough go away, but (like I said before) if you have COPD quitting smoking will keep it from getting worse but it has not been shown to reverse the damage already done.