Roflumilast for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

  • Technology appraisal guidance
  • TA461
  • Published: 
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1 Recommendations

1.1 Roflumilast, as an add-on to bronchodilator therapy, is recommended as an option for treating severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults with chronic bronchitis, only if:

  • the disease is severe, defined as a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) after a bronchodilator of less than 50% of predicted normal, and

  • the person has had 2 or more exacerbations in the previous 12 months despite triple inhaled therapy with a long-acting muscarinic antagonist, a long-acting beta-2 agonist and an inhaled corticosteroid.

1.2 Treatment with roflumilast should be started by a specialist in respiratory medicine.

1.3 These recommendations are not intended to affect treatment with roflumilast that was started in the NHS before this guidance was published. People having treatment outside these recommendations may continue without change to the funding arrangements in place for them before this guidance was published, until they and their NHS clinician consider it appropriate to stop.