James Roach

Eszopiclone Coadministered With Escitalopram in Patients With Insomnia and Comorbid Generalized Anxiety Disorder

CONTEXT Insomnia and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are prevalent disorders that may coexist. OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of eszopiclone combined with escitalopram oxalate in treating insomnia comorbid with GAD. DESIGN Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, add-on therapy 10-week study. SETTING Multicenter outpatient study from July 2005 to April 2006. PATIENTS Adults aged 18 to 64 years meeting DSM-IV-TR criteria for GAD and insomnia. INTERVENTIONS Patients received 10 mg of escitalopram oxolate for 10 weeks and were randomized to also receive either 3 mg of eszopiclone (n = 294) or placebo (n = 301) nightly for 8 weeks. For the last 2 weeks, eszopiclone was replaced with a single-blind placebo. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sleep, daytime functioning, psychiatric measures, and adverse events. RESULTS Compared with treatment with placebo and escitalopram, treatment with eszopiclone and escitalopram resulted in significantly improved sleep and daytime functioning (P < .05), with no evidence of tolerance. Patients taking eszopiclone and escitalopram had greater improvements in total Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) scores at each week (P < .05) and at weeks 4 through 10 with the insomnia item removed. Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) of Improvement scores were improved with eszopiclone and escitalopram at every point (P < .02), while CGI of Severity of Illness scores were not significantly different after week 1. The HAM-A response (63% vs 49%, respectively, P = .001) and remission (42% vs 36%, respectively, P = .09) rates at week 8 were higher in patients treated with eszopiclone and escitalopram than those treated with placebo and escitalopram, and median time to onset of anxiolytic response was significantly reduced (P < or = .05). After eszopiclone discontinuation, there was no evidence of rebound insomnia, and while treatment differences in anxiety measures were maintained, differences in sleep outcomes were not. Overall adverse event rates were 77.6% with cotherapy and 67.9% with monotherapy. The most common adverse events with cotherapy were unpleasant taste, headache, dry mouth, and somnolence. CONCLUSIONS Coadministration of eszopiclone and escitalopram was well tolerated and associated with significantly improved sleep, daytime functioning, anxiety, and mood in patients with insomnia and GAD. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00235508.

The effect of eszopiclone in patients with insomnia and coexisting rheumatoid arthritis: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of eszopiclone 3 mg, a nonbenzodiazepine medication/hypnotic indicated for the treatment of insomnia with comorbid rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHOD This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study was conducted in 153 patients aged 25-64 years with American College of Rheumatology-defined RA who met DSM-IV criteria for insomnia. The data were collected from February to November of 2004. Patients were randomly assigned to either eszopiclone or placebo nightly for 4 weeks, followed by a 2-week placebo run out. Efficacy was evaluated using patient reports of sleep (wake time after sleep onset [WASO], sleep latency [SL], and total sleep time [TST]), daytime function, pain, and RA assessments. Insomnia severity was evaluated using the Insomnia Severity Index. Safety was also evaluated. RESULTS Eszopiclone significantly improved all patient-reported sleep measures (WASO, SL, and TST), sleep quality, depth of sleep, and daytime function (P < .05 vs placebo). At week 4, 48% of eszopiclone-treated patients had no clinically meaningful insomnia as assessed by ISI score (versus 30% of placebo-treated patients, P = .03). Eszopiclone was significantly better than placebo on some RA-associated pain measures: (1) overall (P = .05), pain (P = .006), and pain and other symptoms (P = .02) scores of the Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale, (2) tender joint counts (P = .03) and pain severity scores (P = .023), (3) the activities domain of the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (P = .04), and (4) the role physical (P = .03) and bodily pain (P = .01) scales of the 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form General Health Survey. The most commonly reported adverse events with eszopiclone were unpleasant taste and transient increases in RA symptoms. CONCLUSIONS In this pilot study of patients with insomnia comorbid with RA, eszopiclone 3 mg improved all assessed sleep and daytime function measures over the treatment period, as well as some measures of RA-associated pain, disability, and quality of life. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00367965.

Comparison of Levalbuterol and Racemic Albuterol in Hospitalized Patients with Acute Asthma or COPD : A 2-Week, Multicenter, Randomized, Open-Label Study

BACKGROUND The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guideline recommends that dosing racemic albuterol be administered every 1 to 4 hours for treating patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the hospital. Previously published preliminary and retrospective studies suggested that levalbuterol can be administered every 8 hours for the treatment of bronchoconstriction in hospitalized patients. However, it is unclear how the different dosing regimens affect the total number of nebulizations (scheduled plus as-needed treatments) and the costs of treatment of bronchoconstriction in a hospital setting. Moreover, it is not clear how the different dosing regimens affect symptom outcomes and health status in hospitalized patients with asthma or COPD. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate these issues in hospitalized patients with acute asthma or COPD. METHODS In this prospective, multicenter, randomized, open-label study, hospitalized patients aged > or = 18 years were randomly assigned to receive 14-day treatment with levalbuterol 1.25 mg q6-8h or racemic albuterol 2.5 mg q1-4h, administered per routine hospital practice at each institution. The primary efficacy end point was total number of nebulizations during hospitalization. Pulmonary function, symptom evaluation (subject general well-being score [SGWB], disease symptom assessment [DSA], and beta-mediated adverse effect scores), hospital costs (excluding medication costs) and hospital length of stay (LOS) were also evaluated. RESULTS In the intent-to-treat population (n = 479; levalbuterol, 241;racemic albuterol, 238), the mean (SE) age was 55.3 (16.9) years, the majority of patients were white (57.8%), and the mean (SE) weight was 80.9 (24.5) kg. Demographic characteristics were similar between the 2 treatment groups, except that there were more females with COPD in the levalbuterol treatment group (63.88%) compared with the racemic albuterol treatment group (45.5%) (P = 0.005). Patients treated with levalbuterol required significantly fewer median total nebulizations (10 vs 12; P = 0.031) and scheduled nebulizations (9 vs 11; P = 0.009) compared with those in the racemic albuterol group. The 2 treatment groups required 0 rescue nebulizations. Mean (SD) forced expiratory volume in 1 second improved from baseline with both levalbuterol and racemic albuterol (0.06 [0.43] and 0.10 [0.37] L, respectively); these improvements were maintained throughout the hospital stay (0.11 [0.48] and 0.16 [0.52] L). DSA and SGWB scores improved significantly from baseline in both treatment groups, and beta-mediated adverse effects mean scores were significantly greater with levalbuterol versus racemic albuterol (P < 0.001). In the levalbuterol and racemic albuterol treatment groups, hospital LOS (70.6 and 65.7 hours, respectively), time to discharge (66.0 and 62.8 hours), and total hospital costs (least squares mean [SE], US

Development of Glatopa® (Glatiramer Acetate): The First FDA-Approved Generic Disease-Modifying Therapy for Relapsing Forms of Multiple Sclerosis

4869.30 [

Nightly Treatment of Primary Insomnia With Eszopiclone for Six Months: Effect on Sleep, Quality of Life, and Work Limitations

343.58] and

A pilot study evaluating acute use of eszopiclone in patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

4899.41 [

Levalbuterol compared with racemic albuterol in the treatment of acute asthma: results of a pilot study

343.20]) were similar. CONCLUSIONS In these hospitalized patients with acute asthma or COPD treated with levalbuterol every 6 to 8 hours or racemic albuterol every 1 to 4 hours, significantly fewer total nebulizations were required with levalbuterol, without an increased need for rescue nebulizations during 14 days of hospitalization. Both treatments were associated with improvements from baseline in symptoms and health status. The costs of treating bronchoconstriction in hospitalized patients were similar between the levalbuterol and racemic albuterol groups.

Evaluation of the Safety and Efficacy of Levalbuterol in 2–5-year-Old Patients with Asthma

The multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment landscape in the United States has changed dramatically over the past decade. While many disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of relapsing forms of MS, DMT costs continue to rise. The availability of generics and biosimilars in the MS-treatment landscape is unlikely to have a major impact on clinical benefit. However, their availability will provide alternative treatment options and potentially lower costs through competition, thus increasing the affordability of and access to these drugs. In April 2015, the first generic version of the complex drug glatiramer acetate (Glatopa® 20 mg/mL) injection was approved in the United States as a fully substitutable generic for all approved indications of the 20 mg/mL branded glatiramer acetate (Copaxone®) dosage form. Despite glatiramer acetate’s complex nature—being a chemically synthesized (ie, nonbiologic) mixture of peptides—the approval occurred without conducting any clinical trials. Rather, extensive structural and functional characterization was performed to demonstrate therapeutic equivalence to the innovator drug. The approval of Glatopa signifies an important milestone in the US MS-treatment landscape, with the hope that the introduction of generic DMTs and eventually biosimilar DMTs will lead to future improvements in the affordability and access of these much-needed treatments for MS.