Feeling asthma-free for the first time in her life

For the first time in her life, Madeline Laberge, a respiratory therapist at VGH, doesn’t feel like she has asthma. The benefits she’s seen as a result of participating in a clinical trial for a new asthma medication have been nothing short of remarkable.

Madeline used to rely on several strong medications to keep her asthma in check and had been hospitalized many times. “Before I participated in this third study, I had become hugely tolerant to my rescue medication because I’d take as many as 12 puffs of it in one day and my body really got used to it,” she adds.
As part of the clinical trial, Madeline took a new, experimental drug once a month or every other month and found that she rarely needed her rescue inhaler or strong corticosteroid therapy, and she hasn’t been hospitalized.

VCH Research Institute (VCHRI) clinician scientist Dr. Mark FitzGerald explains that most asthma patients can have their asthma controlled with medication that’s currently available. But medications targeting more severe cases of the disease are needed.

“Madeline’s results are very encouraging and we hope to see similar results in other participants,” says Dr. FitzGerald. “Once the study results are available later this year, we’ll have a better sense of how effective this medication is overall and whether it will soon be available for use outside clinical trials,”

Read more about Madeline’s story.