Boehringer's Spiriva: Advancing COPD Therapy

Boehringer Ingelheim's new COPD treatment, Spiriva, could be a blockbuster--particularly if its worldwide marketing partner Pfizer can increase diagnosis of the disease and expand COPD drugs' prescribing base from specialists to GPs. But, complicating matters for Boehringer, Pfizer--through its proposed acquisition of Pharmacia--will also market the PDE-4 inhibitor roflumilast, Altana's next-generation COPD therapy.