A DAILY tablet trialled at a Merseyside hospital could save the lives of millions of lung disease sufferers around the world.

The pill, Roflumilast, tested by patients at University Hospital Aintree, treats one of the world’s biggest killers – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a term for chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

About 30,000 people in the UK die every year from the conditions, which are often triggered by air pollution or infections.

Areas of Merseyside have some of the largest numbers of sufferers in the country because of historically high smoking rates. The trial found life-threatening lung attacks were reduced in around 20% of patients, and 80% of sufferers with severe symptoms should benefit from the drug.

Details of the breakthrough are being revealed today at a health conference in Vienna.

Professor Peter Calverley, the hospital’s honorary consultant physician in respiratory medicine, is speaking at the European Respiratory Society’s annual congress – a gathering of some of the world’s top scientists and medical professionals.

Prof Calverley, who is also professor of respiratory medicine research at the University of Liverpool, led 12-month trials into the drug on around 3,000 patients internationally, including 30 at University Hospital Aintree.