Introduction: In non-cystic fibrosis (CF) bronchiectasis, the chronic airways infection is a risk factor for frequent infectious exacerbations and for an overall poor disease prognosis. Its therapy with inhaled antibiotics might be useful alike in the case of the CF-related disease.
Areas covered: Analysis and discussion of the results of a Phase II study evaluating the efficacy and safety of the inhaled ciprofloxacin-dry powder (C-DPI) formulation in patients with non-CF bronchiectasis.
Expert opinion: On short-term basis C-DPI is able to reduce the sputum bacterial load in such patients but long-term studies are also needed to better characterize the clinical efficacy of this compound.