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Currently available inhaled bronchodilators used as therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) necessitate multiple daily dosing. The present study evaluates the long-term safety and efficacy of tiotropium, a new once-daily anticholinergic in COPD.Patients with stable COPD (age 65.2¡8.7 yrs (mean¡SD), n=921) were enrolled in two identical randomized double-blind placebo-controlled 1-yr studies. Patients inhaled tiotropium 18 mg or placebo (mean screening forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 1.01 versus 0.99 L, 39.1 and 38.1% of the predicted value) once daily as a dry powder. The primary spirometric outcome was trough FEV1 (i.e. FEV1 prior to dosing). Changes in dyspnoea were measured using the Transition Dyspnea Index, and health status with the disease-specific St. George9s Respiratory Questionnaire and the generic Short Form 36. Medication use and adverse events were recorded.Tiotropium provided significantly superior bronchodilation relative to placebo for trough FEV1 response (y12% over baseline) (pv0.01) and mean response during the 3 h following dosing (y22% over baseline) (pv0.001) over the 12-month period. Tiotropium recipients showed less dyspnoea (pv0.001), superior health status scores, and fewer COPD exacerbations and hospitalizations (pv0.05). Adverse events were comparable with placebo, except for dry mouth incidence (tiotropium 16.0% versus placebo 2.7%, pv0.05).Tiotropium is an effective, once-daily bronchodilator that reduces dyspnoea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation frequency and improves health status. This suggests that tiotropium will make an important contribution to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease therapy.

The American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society jointly created a Task Force on “Outcomes for COPD pharmacological trials: from lung function to biomarkers” to inform the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease research community about the possible use and limitations of current outcomes and markers when evaluating the impact of a pharmacological therapy. Based on their review of the published literature, the following document has been prepared with individual sections that address specific outcomes and markers, and a final section that summarises their recommendations.

Indacaterol was an effective once-daily bronchodilator and was at least as effective as tiotropium in improving clinical outcomes for patients with COPD. Clinical trial registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 00463567).