Some cold comfort for asthma sufferers

MORE than 500,000 asthma sufferers in the UK could benefit from a “breakthrough” drug that reduces complications caused by the common cold, it has been claimed.

Severe symptoms due to cold infections are one of the chief reasons why asthma patients end up in hospital.

A trial of the new drug, SNG001, found it significantly reduced asthma symptoms during the critical first week of infection.

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Treatment led to a 65 per cent reduction in the number of patients experiencing moderate worsening of symptoms.

Researchers from the University of Southampton looked at the effect of SNG001 in a population of 134 adult patients with “mild-moderate” to “severe” asthma who caught a cold.

Chief investigator Professor Ratko Djukanovic, from the University of Southampton, said: “This trial, conducted by several UK academic respiratory experts, provides the first evidence of an effective anti-viral drug that can boost the asthmatic patient’s immune system to fight viruses and thus significantly reduce the impact of virus infections on asthma control.”