15 Apr 25
The development of new pharmaceutical products is a long process: besides dedicating time and effort to the obvious research and development, it is also necessary to be flexible and ready to adjust to feedback. For this reason, having reliable methods to assess the effectiveness of the new medications is crucial for an optimal result.
When working on new drugs aimed at treating respiratory conditions like asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), or fibrosis, spirometry can play a key role in determining how well a drug improves respiratory health.
In this article, we will explore how spirometry can be used in clinical trials and pharmaceutical research to evaluate new treatments.
Spirometry is a quick non-invasive pulmonary function test that can provide insights on a patient’s respiratory health. By measuring how much air a person is able to exhale and how quickly, spirometry can identify restrictive or obstructive respiratory patterns, and assess the severity of lung function impairment.
These measurements are highly standardized, which makes spirometry a reliable tool capable of offering objective results that can be easily put to use.
Clinical trials rely on pre- and post-treatment comparisons to determine drug efficacy. Drug evaluation, however, often depends on measures like patient-reported symptom relief, a practice that is heavily subjective and therefore predisposed to errors.
Spirometry, instead, offers clear numerical data that objectively show whether a treatment is effective or not by comparing lung function before and after taking the new medication.
Here is an example. In the case of obstructive lung conditions like asthma, a bronchodilator may be administered to a patient participating in the trials. If the drug is effective, a spirometry test may register an improvement in parameters like FEV1 (Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second), confirming that the medication is effectively opening the airways. If no improvements are detected, or the test identifies lung function decline instead, researchers may still need to modify the drug before proceeding further.
Clinical trials may span across wide periods of time, shifting from early-phase research to later-stage trials and follow-ups.
During the earliest phases, spirometry results may confirm the efficacy of a new treatment as explained before, so that the research can proceed to the following stages.
Similarly, long-term studies use spirometry to evaluate whether a medication maintains its effectiveness over months or years, allowing researchers and pharmaceutical companies to monitor how the drug actively slows the course of respiratory conditions.
In addition, spirometry can help identify subgroups of patients who don’t answer to treatments in the same way others do. This information supports personalized strategies, ensuring that treatments are targeted to those who truly need them.
Another aspect that makes spirometry a key tool in clinical trials is the regulatory approval and standardization phase.
Regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require objective evidence to approve new drugs. Spirometry provides standardized data that supports clinical trial findings, helping pharmaceutical companies meet approval requirements. By integrating spirometry into pharmaceutical researches, developers can ensure that new medications are both effective and safe.
With over 30 years of experience, MIR is a world-renowned leader in the field of spirometry and oximetry, offering a wide range of solutions for the diagnosis of respiratory diseases in primary care, personal care, and clinical trials.
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