The University of the Sunshine Coast’s Clinical Trials Centre is about to start testing the effectiveness and safety of a potential new triple therapy medicine to better manage and treat asthma.

The centre, which last year started trialling different treatments for epilepsy, emphysema and influenza, is now accepting volunteer participants for the asthma research.

Centre director Lucas Litewka said volunteers were needed to test the new medicine, which combined corticosteroids that helped reduce inflammation and bronchodilators that helped open up and relax the muscles in the airways of the lungs.

“Asthma is a long-term lung condition that cannot be cured, but for most people it can be controlled with a daily management plan,” Mr Litewka said.

The USC centre has partnered with Golden Beach Medical Centre on the medical research.

General practitioner Dr Peter de Wet is the principal investigator on this USC clinical trial.

Dr de Wet said the once-a-day treatment might reduce the need for patients to carry around multiple puffers and undergo complicated treatment regimes.

Asthmatics who continue to experience asthma flare-ups despite taking current treatment can contact the trial centre.

Clinical trials are medical research studies aimed at finding new or better ways to treat and manage health conditions and illnesses. The USC Centre started operating in 2016.

For details go to www.usc.edu.au/asthma or www.usc.edu.au/trials.

— Julie Schomberg