ClinicalTrials.gg
TerminatedNCT00075998Updated Jul 2, 2009

The INSPIRE Trial: A Study of Interferon Gamma-1b for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

A Phase 3 interventional study of Interferon gamma-1b ("Actimmune") in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Lung Disease and Pulmonary Fibrosis, sponsored by InterMune. Terminated at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 40 Years to 79 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2009-07-02.

Sponsored by InterMune (part of Hoffmann-La Roche) · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was terminated
test drug showed lack of benefit at interim analysis
Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
826
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
40 Years to 79 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

  • Purpose: A phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to determine the efficacy and safety of 200 µg of recombinant Interferon gamma-1b administered by subcutaneous (SC) injection, compared with placebo, in patients with IPF
  • Enrollment: Approximately 800 patients will be enrolled from approximately 80 centers in North America and Europe
  • Randomization: 2:1 active-to-placebo ratio
  • Duration: at least 2 years active drug or placebo (rescue therapy will be permitted for patients who meet predefined criteria)
Read the detailed description

INSPIRE, the largest and most comprehensive clinical trial ever conducted in IPF, has now completed enrolling patients with mild to moderate IPF. Eligible patients will receive either Interferon gamma-1b or placebo for a minimum of 2 years.

02

Conditions studied

  • Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
  • Lung Disease
  • Pulmonary Fibrosis

Keywords

  • Idiopathic
  • Pulmonary
  • Fibrosis
  • IPF
  • Lung
  • Interferon
  • Gamma
  • Actimmune
  • INSPIRE
  • InterMune
03

In context

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

576 studies on the registry are indexed under Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis; 123 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 826 is above the median of 55 across 389 interventional studies indexed under Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Browse Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis studies →

Lead sponsor

InterMune is the lead sponsor of 15 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

First submitted before InterMune became part of Hoffmann-La Roche.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
40 Years to 79 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Clinical symptoms consistent with IPF of >= 3 months duration
  • Diagnosis of IPF within 48 months before randomization
  • Age 40 through 79, inclusive
  • High-resolution computed tomographic scan (HRCT) showing definite IPF. For patients with surgical lung showing definite or probable usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), the HRCT criterion of probable IPF is sufficient.
  • For patients aged \< 50 years: open or video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) lung biopsy showing definite or probable UIP within 48 months before randomization. In addition, there are no features supporting an alternative diagnosis on transbronchial biopsy or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) if performed.
  • For patients aged \< 50 years: At least one of the following diagnostic findings, as well as the absence of any features on specimens resulting from any of these procedures that support an alternative diagnosis, within 48 months before randomization:

    • Open or VATS lung biopsy showing definite or probable UIP
    • Transbronchial biopsy showing no features to support an alternative diagnosis
    • BAL showing no features to support an alternative diagnosis IPF Disease Severity and Progression
  • FVC >= 55% of predicted value (post administration of bronchodilator)
  • (Hb)-corrected carbon monoxide diffusing capacity/carbon monoxide transfer capacity (DLCO/TLCO) >= 35% of predicted value
  • At least one of either FVC or Hb-corrected DLCO/TLCO \<= 90% of predicted value
  • IPF disease progression evidenced by one or more of the following within the past year and the absence of evidence of improvement in the past year:

    • Absolute decrease of >= 10% in FVC
    • Absolute decrease of >= 15% in DLCO/TLCO
    • Evidence of worsening on chest X ray or HRCT
    • Significant worsening of dyspnea
  • Distance walked >= 150 meters (492 feet) with O2 saturation >= 83% on \<= 6 L/min of O2 during the 6 Minute Walk Test (6MWT) oxygen titration procedure

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria:

  1. Not a suitable candidate for enrollment or unlikely to comply with the requirements of this study, in the opinion of the Principal Investigator (PI)
  2. (FEV1)/FVC ratio \< 0.6 (after administration of bronchodilator)
  3. Residual volume (RV) > 140% of predicted (before administration of bronchodilator)
  4. History of environmental exposure known to cause pulmonary fibrosis (including but not limited to drugs, asbestos, beryllium, radiation, domestic birds)
  5. Known explanation for interstitial lung disease, including but not limited to radiation, sarcoidosis, pneumonitis, bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia, and cancer
  6. Diagnosis of any connective tissue disease, including but not limited to scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis
  7. Clinical evidence of active infection, including but not limited to bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, urinary tract infection, and cellulitis
  8. On a lung transplantation waiting list at time of randomization

    Medical Exclusions:

  9. Any history of likely to result in death, significant disability, or likely to require significant medical or surgical intervention within the next 3 years. This does not include minor surgical procedures for localized carcinoma (e.g., basal cell carcinoma)
  10. Any condition other than IPF which, in the opinion of the PI, is likely to result in the death of the patient within the next 3 years
  11. History of unstable or deteriorating cardiac, vascular, or neurologic disease within the previous 6 months, including but not limited to the following:

    • Myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, coronary artery bypass surgery, or coronary angioplasty
    • Congestive heart failure requiring hospitalization
    • Uncontrolled arrhythmias
    • Thromboembolic event (e.g., deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism)
    • (TIAs) or cerebral vascular accident
  12. Any condition, which, in the opinion of the investigator, might be significantly exacerbated by the known side effects, (e.g., flu-like syndrome) associated with the administration of IFN g 1b
  13. History of any of the following medical conditions:

    • Multiple sclerosis
    • Seizures within the past 10 years or taking anti seizure medication
    • Severe or poorly controlled diabetes
  14. Pregnancy or lactation. Females of are required to have a negative serum pregnancy test before treatment and must agree to practice abstinence or prevent pregnancy by at least a barrier method of for the duration of the study
  15. Inability to tolerate nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) or acetaminophen (paracetamol)
  16. History of ethanol abuse in the past 2 years
  17. Known hypersensitivity to IFN-g or closely related interferons or to any component of the study treatment
  18. Presence of (HIV) or chronic viral hepatitis

    Laboratory Exclusions:

  19. Any of the following liver function test criteria above specified limits:

    Total > 1.5 x (ULN); aspartate or (AST/SGOT or ALT/SGPT) > 2 x ULN; alkaline phosphatase > 2 x ULN; or albumin \< 3.0 mg/dL

  20. Any of the following hematology test criteria outside of specified limits: WBC \< 2,500/mm3, hematocrit \< 30% or > 59%, \< 100,000 /mm3
  21. Creatinine > 1.5 x ULN

    Concomitant Therapy Exclusions:

  22. Prednisone therapy (prednisone or equivalent, with dose adjusted for potency) in excess of 0.125 mg/kg ideal body weight (IBW) per day or in excess of 0.25 mg/kg IBW every other day. Patients will also be excluded if they were not on a stable dose of therapy for at least 28 days prior to screening.
  23. Prior treatment with IFN g 1b
  24. therapy (i.e., agents that are not approved by local regulatory agencies) for any indication within 28 days prior to screening
  25. The following therapies are excluded within 28 days prior to screening:

    • Investigational therapy for IPF, including pirfenidone
    • Any cytotoxic/ agent other than corticosteroids (including but not limited to azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, cyclosporine)
    • Any cytokine modulators (including but not limited to etanercept, infliximab)
    • Any therapy targeted to treat IPF (including but not limited to d penicillamine, colchicine, bosentan, N-acetyl-cysteine [NAC])
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(17)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

FEV1

From a breathing test (spirometry): how much air you can blow out in the first second. Often given as a percentage of what is expected for your age, height and sex.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
826 participants (actual)

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Survival time from randomization to treatment completion visit, or, end of treatment period, or, last known vital status.

    Time frame: 3.5 years

Secondary outcomes

  1. Lung transplant-free survival time (ongoing assessment up to end of study).

    Time frame: 3.5 years

  2. Total number of days without hospitalization resulting from respiratory admission diagnosis (ongoing assessment up to end of study).

    Time frame: 3.5 years

  3. Changes from baseline measurement to week 96 measurement in the following (measured every 24 weeks): 6-minute walk test, shortness of breath

    Time frame: 96 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • InterMune, Inc.
    Brisbane, California 94005, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Allen RJ, Stockwell A, Oldham JM, Guillen-Guio B, Schwartz DA, Maher TM, Flores C, Noth I, Yaspan BL, Jenkins RG, Wain LV; International IPF Genetics Consortium. Genome-wide association study across five cohorts identifies five novel loci associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Thorax. 2022 Aug;77(8):829-833. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-218577. Epub 2022 Jun 10. PubMed 35688625 ↗
  • Kreuter M, Lee JS, Tzouvelekis A, Oldham JM, Molyneaux PL, Weycker D, Atwood M, Kirchgaessler KU, Maher TM. Monocyte Count as a Prognostic Biomarker in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2021 Jul 1;204(1):74-81. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202003-0669OC. PubMed 33434107 ↗
  • Kreuter M, Lederer DJ, Molina-Molina M, Noth I, Valenzuela C, Frankenstein L, Weycker D, Atwood M, Kirchgaessler KU, Cottin V. Association of Angiotensin Modulators With the Course of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Chest. 2019 Oct;156(4):706-714. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2019.04.015. Epub 2019 Apr 29. PubMed 31047956 ↗
  • Cottin V, Hansell DM, Sverzellati N, Weycker D, Antoniou KM, Atwood M, Oster G, Kirchgaessler KU, Collard HR, Wells AU. Effect of Emphysema Extent on Serial Lung Function in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2017 Nov 1;196(9):1162-1171. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201612-2492OC. PubMed 28657784 ↗
  • du Bois RM, Albera C, Bradford WZ, Costabel U, Leff JA, Noble PW, Sahn SA, Valeyre D, Weycker D, King TE Jr. 6-Minute walk distance is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Eur Respir J. 2014 May;43(5):1421-9. doi: 10.1183/09031936.00131813. Epub 2013 Dec 5. PubMed 24311766 ↗
  • King TE Jr, Albera C, Bradford WZ, Costabel U, Hormel P, Lancaster L, Noble PW, Sahn SA, Szwarcberg J, Thomeer M, Valeyre D, du Bois RM; INSPIRE Study Group. Effect of interferon gamma-1b on survival in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (INSPIRE): a multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2009 Jul 18;374(9685):222-8. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60551-1. Epub 2009 Jun 29. PubMed 19570573 ↗
09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Dec 2003 and a completion of May 2007. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 12, 2004
First posted
Jan 14, 2004
Start
Dec 2003
CompletionActual
May 2007
Last update
Jul 2, 2009
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 2, 2009, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00075998
Lead sponsor
InterMune
First posted
Jan 14, 2004
Start date
Dec 2003
Completion
May 2007
Last update
Jul 2, 2009

Study contacts

InterMune, Inc.
study chair · Medical Information

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is terminated, as verified in Jul 2009. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Interferon gamma-1b

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