Treatment of Acute Exacerbation of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. A Call to Arms

Kreuter and Maher discuss the study by Kondoh and colleagues on the use of recombinant thrombomodulin alfa for acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF). This drug has been used in Japan for a number of years on the strength of several small, uncontrolled, observational, and retrospective clinical studies, all of which were conducted in Asia, which suggested efficacy of thrombomodulin alfa in improving outcomes for patients hospitalized with AE-IPF. The negative outcome of this trial demonstrates clearly that the management of AE-IPF still represents an area of major unmet medical need.