Boehringer Ingelheim Corp., of Ridgefield, Conn., part of Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, presented data from phase III studies of tiotropium delivered via the Respimat inhaler in mild, moderate and severe asthma patients at the 2014 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting in San Diego. Results showed that it improved lung function response, as measured by forced expiratory volume in one second, in patients with mild asthma who remained symptomatic while receiving low-dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment. A pre-specified subset of data from the phase III MezzoTinA-asthma trials (NCT01172808/NCT01172821) showed that, in patients with moderate asthma who remained symptomatic while receiving medium-dose ICS therapy, the addition of once-daily tiotropium reduced airflow obstruction independently of allergic status, as measured by the TH2 phenotype biomarkers.

Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Munich, and Takeda Pharmaceutical International GmbH, of Zurich, Switzerland, reported results from a study that evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of lurasidone for the maintenance treatment of adults with schizophrenia. Lurasidone is a once-daily oral atypical antipsychotic indicated for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia and is currently available in the U.S., Canada and Switzerland. In the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized withdrawal study, adult patients with schizophrenia who were stabilized on lurasidone (40-80 mg/day, flexibly dosed) during open-label treatment were randomized to either continued treatment with lurasidone (40 mg/day or 80 mg/day, flexibly dosed) or placebo for up to 28 weeks. The primary endpoint was time to relapse over 28 weeks of the double-blind phase. The study showed that patients who received lurasidone (N=144) experienced a significant delay in time to relapse compared to patients who received placebo (N = 141) (p = 0.039).