6 Pulmonology Headlines You Missed in February 2026

Pulmonology entered March 2026 with a mixed but meaningful set of clinical signals spanning asthma, COPD, and pulmonary vascular disease. The month's most consequential trial readout may have been the phase 3 PROSERA failure for seralutinib in pulmonary arterial hypertension—a near-miss that achieved nominal statistical significance but fell short of its prespecified threshold, leaving Gossamer Bio in regulatory limbo while a subgroup signal in higher-risk patients keeps the program on life support. Elsewhere, the pipeline was more encouraging: verekitug's phase 2 VALIANT data positioned the TSLP receptor antagonist as a potential addition to the severe asthma biologic landscape, and pooled analyses confirmed mepolizumab's exacerbation benefit in type 2 COPD across a broader range of blood eosinophil counts than previously established.

Beyond trials, 2 real-world datasets added clinical texture to existing treatments. GSK's AREXVY demonstrated associations with reduced cardiovascular events and respiratory exacerbations during Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)-related hospitalizations—a finding that, while exploratory, may expand how clinicians frame the case for RSV vaccination in older adults with comorbid disease. And a JAMA Internal Medicine analysis offered a quiet but practically useful result: lower-carbon LAMA-LABA inhalers appear modestly superior to metered-dose counterparts on clinical outcomes, a convergence of environmental and therapeutic rationale that warrants attention as prescribing habits evolve. Rounding out the month, retrospective data from the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) suggested GLP-1 receptor agonists may reduce asthma exacerbations in non-diabetic patients with obesity—a preliminary signal that raises more questions than it answers, but one that reflects growing interest in the metabolic-respiratory interface

Check out this February 2026 pulmonology month in review for a recap of HCPLive’s coverage of the top news and research from the past few weeks:

Phase 2 VALIANT: Verekitug Reduces Average Annual Asthma Flare-Ups

Topline results from the phase 2 VALIANT trial show that verekitug met its primary endpoint, demonstrating statistically significant reductions in annualized asthma exacerbation rate compared with placebo in adults with severe asthma. The TSLP receptor antagonist achieved a 56% exacerbation reduction at the 100 mg every-12-weeks dose, with Upstream Bio planning to advance the drug into phase 3 trials in severe asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.

AREXVY Vaccine Reduces Hospitalization, Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in RSV

New real-world data from GSK show that AREXVY was associated with 75.6% effectiveness against RSV-related hospitalization in adults aged 60 and older, with exploratory endpoints also demonstrating reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke, during RSV-related hospitalizations. The findings, presented at RSVVW'26 in Rome, were derived from a retrospective cohort study of more than 2.5 million US patients and a separate nationwide Danish cohort of adults with COPD.

PROSERA: Seralutinib Falls Short in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Phase 3 Trial

Topline data from the phase 3 PROSERA trial indicate that seralutinib, an investigational inhaled tyrosine kinase inhibitor, did not meet its prespecified primary efficacy threshold in pulmonary arterial hypertension, despite achieving nominal statistical significance on 6-minute walk distance at 24 weeks. A prespecified subgroup of intermediate- and high-risk patients showed a more clinically meaningful improvement over placebo, and Gossamer Bio has indicated plans to discuss a potential regulatory path forward with the FDA.

Lower-Carbon LAMA-LABA Inhalers Linked to Modest Reductions in COPD Exacerbation Risk

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that lower-carbon LAMA-LABA inhalers—dry powder and soft mist devices—were associated with modestly better clinical outcomes for patients with COPD compared to metered-dose inhalers in the same class, with no meaningful differences in safety outcomes across groups. The dry powder inhaler umeclidinium-vilanterol was associated with a 14% lower risk of moderate or severe COPD exacerbations compared with the MDI glycopyrrolate-formoterol, suggesting an opportunity to reduce healthcare-related emissions without compromising patient care.

Mepolizumab Reduces Type 2 COPD Exacerbations Across Variable BEC Levels

Mepolizumab was found to reduce exacerbations in patients with COPD and type 2 inflammation consistently across varying blood eosinophil counts, according to study results presented at the 2026 AAAAI Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The pooled analysis, drawing from three randomized controlled trials including METREX, METREO, and MATINEE, demonstrated a statistically significant 19% reduction in annualized rates of moderate to severe exacerbations in the broader eosinophilic COPD population, supporting mepolizumab's use across a wider range of blood eosinophil thresholds than previously characterized.

GLP-1s Linked to Reduced Asthma Exacerbations, With Ruchi Patel, MD

A retrospective cohort study presented at AAAAI 2026 found that GLP-1 receptor agonist initiation was consistently associated with a lower risk of asthma exacerbation across overweight, obese, and morbidly obese non-diabetic patients, with absolute risk reductions ranging from 12.2% to 14.6% depending on BMI category. Investigators noted the consistency of the effect across weight categories as potentially suggestive of a direct anti-inflammatory mechanism beyond weight loss alone, though they acknowledged the retrospective design limits causal conclusions and called for prospective, randomized studies.