Pharmaxis says study points to larger market for lung drug

Sydney-based pharmaceutical company Pharmaxis (ASX:PXS) believes the market for its Aridol lung function test has the potential to double, after a pilot Swiss study gave Aridol the stamp of approval for predicting patients' response to steroids used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD -- caused when airways and air sacs lose their elasticity, obstructing the flow of air in and out of the lungs -- is the fourth biggest killer in the world. It is often triggered by smoking.

According to Pharmaxis CEO Alan Robertson, people who test positive to the Aridol test can be put straight on to inhaled steroids rather than less effective oral steroids.

"There are no effective therapies that cure or treat the disease," he said. "The best is inhaled steroids to dampen down the inflammation. Only one in four or five people respond to steroids -- nobody really knows why.

"You want to avoid giving everyone steroids, you don't want to expose people to steroids needlessly and you don't want to overburden the health system.

"The Aridol challenge test offers the opportunity to streamline treatment, to reduce healthcare costs and to avoid needless side-effects in patients with COPD."

Aridol is a mannitol sugar manufactured by Pharmaxis which is administered in increasing amounts to a patient and followed by lung function tests, measuring the amount of air a patient can expel in a second. If bronchoconstriction is recorded, the test is deemed positive.

In the study, 30 patients with COPD were given a lung function test with Aridol prior to treatment for three months with inhaled steroids to control inflammation and lung damage. Following the three-month treatment phase, only those patients who had returned a positive Aridol test responded to steroid treatment, recording an improvement in lung function, a correlation which Robertson finds "absolutely remarkable".

The results of the Swiss study were presented at the annual meeting of the Swiss Society for Allergy and Immunology in Geneva and will be presented at the American Thoracic Society Annual Meeting next month.

"We haven't embarked on an approval study yet, but we are extending this study," Robertson said.

Aridol was initially developed by Pharmaxis as an improved lung function test to help manage asthma, and is currently in a multi-centre Phase III clinical study in Australia.