As AstraZeneca’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug Breztri continues climbing toward blockbuster status, the Big Pharma is broadening its efforts to support people with COPD.
That includes, most recently, joining in on a new campaign from the American Lung Association devoted to improving COPD patients’ quality of life. The “Learning to Live with COPD” initiative is “made possible thanks to support” from AstraZeneca, according to a Monday announcement from the ALA.
The campaign aims to educate patients about the disease and its treatment options. Included in those efforts are the addition of a new COPD-focused health navigator service to the ALA’s Lung HelpLine, as well as a free webinar slated for Nov. 20 that will feature a COPD expert and an actual patient.
Not only is that education expected to help them better understand their diagnosis and avoid exacerbations that could require a hospital visit to treat, but the campaign’s creators also hope it’ll empower patients to talk more openly with their doctors about their COPD.
The campaign will focus in particular on female patients, those of lower socioeconomic status and those in rural communities, all groups that are disproportionately affected by COPD and that often face barriers to care that can lead to poorer health outcomes, per the ALA.
“Managing COPD can be overwhelming, particularly for those newly diagnosed,” Harold Wimmer, the association’s CEO and president, said in the announcement. “Through our new ‘Learning to Live with COPD’ campaign, we aim to provide individuals with the tools they need to better understand their disease, work with their healthcare providers, and access the latest treatment options. Education and support are key to living well with COPD, and we are proud to expand on these critical resources through this campaign.”
More than 11.7 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COPD, and as many as 18 million more may be unknowingly living with the condition, according to the ALA. The long-term lung disease is treatable, but remains a leading cause of death and disability around the world, thanks in part to the aforementioned lack of education and access to helpful resources and treatments.
This isn’t the first time AstraZeneca has teamed up with the ALA to promote improved lung health with an eye toward health equity. In recent years, the drugmaker has come aboard the association’s “Awareness, Trust and Action” campaign aimed at boosting the representation of Black patients in lung cancer clinical trials.
Its participation in the Learning to Live with COPD campaign comes as COPD drug Breztri’s sales cruise steadily upward. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca is also testing out its asthma drug Tezspire as a potential treatment for COPD; data released earlier this year showed that while Tezspire had missed the primary endpoint in a phase 2a trial, it did significantly help to reduce COPD exacerbations in certain subgroups, which makers AstraZeneca and Amgen called “encouraging.”