Current and future pharmacotherapy options for non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In recent years, there has been an increasing number of clinical trials investigating the effect of pharmacological treatments on patients with bronchiectasis.

Areas covered: This review provides an overview of current drugs used in bronchiectasis patients as well as those that could make a future contribution to the management of this disease.

Expert commentary: Bronchiectasis is a very heterogeneous disease, so it can be studied from a phenotypic standpoint and its pathophysiological mechanisms (endotypes) can be defined. This provides an interesting field of research as it enables the identification of patients suitable for inclusion in specific clinical trials on new drugs.

KEYWORDS:

• Bronchiectasis
• bronchial infection
• inhaled antibiotics
• bronchodilators
• inhaled steroids
• mucus clearance techniques
• mucoactive agents
• macrolides
• mucolytics
• hypertonic agents

Declaration of interests

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they have been involved in many clinical trials cited within the manuscript as well as on consensus statement development. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no other relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This article was not funded.