AstraZeneca’s Symbicort ‘more cost effective than Seretide for COPD’

AstraZeneca has claimed that Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol) is more cost-effective in the treatment of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) than Seretide, the rival treatment produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

New data was presented at the European Respiratory Society’s annual conference, which featured a cost-effectiveness analysis of switching treatments for patients with severe COPD.

Economic models employed by researchers demonstrated that switching patients to Symbicort instead of Seretide would result in a saving of 138 euros (94 pounds) per patient, per year.

Professor Peter Calverley of the Aintree Chest Centre, University of Liverpool, said the data was “very interesting” and made the role Symbicort treatment can play in alleviating severe COPD clearer.

Chris Jones, AstraZeneca’s vice president of Symbicort, added that the company was committed to meeting the clinical needs caused by respiratory diseases and that the firm was “encouraged” by the recent findings.

He said: “The health economic data presented today add cost-effectiveness to the existing body of evidence for budesonide/formoterol in the treatment of COPD.”

This is third study for Symbicort AstraZeneca has published in the space of a week and all of them attempt to establish superiority over Seretide.

Seretide is GSK’s best-selling respiratory drug, outselling Symbicort, which is AstraZeneca’s second best-selling behind Pulmicort.

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