Safety and survival data in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treated with nintedanib: pooled data from six clinical trials

Introduction: Nintedanib slows disease progression in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) by reducing the rate of decline in forced vital capacity, with an adverse event profile that is manageable for most patients. We used data from six clinical trials to characterise the safety and tolerability profile of nintedanib and to investigate its effects on survival.

Methods: Data from patients treated with ≥1 dose of nintedanib 150 mg two times per day or placebo in the 52-week TOMORROW trial and/or its open-label extension; the two 52-week INPULSIS trials and/or their open-label extension, INPULSIS-ON; and a Phase IIIb trial with a placebo-controlled period of ≥6 months followed by open-label nintedanib were pooled. All adverse events, irrespective of causality, were included in descriptive analyses. Parametric survival distributions were fit to pooled Kaplan-Meier survival data from the trials and extrapolated to estimate long-term survival.

Results: There were 1126 patients in the pooled nintedanib group and 565 patients in the pooled placebo group. The mean duration of nintedanib treatment was 28 months. No new safety signals were observed. Incidence rates of bleeding, liver enzyme elevations and cardiovascular events were consistent with those observed in the INPULSIS trials. Diarrhoea was reported at a lower event rate in the pooled nintedanib group than in nintedanib-treated patients in the INPULSIS trials (76.5 vs 112.6 events per 100 patient exposure-years) and infrequently led to permanent treatment discontinuation (3.6 events per 100 patient exposure-years). Based on the Weibull distribution, mean (95% CI) survival was estimated as 11.6 (9.6, 14.1) years in nintedanib-treated patients and 3.7 (2.5, 5.4) years in placebo-treated patients.

Conclusions: Based on pooled data from six clinical trials, the adverse event profile of nintedanib was manageable for most patients. Exploratory analyses based on extrapolation of survival data suggest that nintedanib extends life expectancy in patients with IPF.