Reslizumab Associated With Symptomatic Improvements, Reduced Health Resource Utilization in Adults with Severe Eosinophilic Asthma Landing Page

Past studies have proven reslizumab to be successful at improving lung function and decreasing incidences of clinical asthma exacerbation, however, researchers recently sought out to measure its real-world effectiveness in US clinical practice for patients with severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA).

Michael Wechsler, MD, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, and colleagues conducted a retrospective chart review of 215 patients with SEA who received reslizumab treatment for ≥7 months. Primary measures included health care resource utilization (HRU), clinical asthma exacerbation, FEV1 percent predicted (FEV1PP) and patient-reported asthma control.

At baseline, patients averaged 45.2 years, mean BMI 27.6 kg/m² (5.0), mean FEV₁ 2.2 L (0.7). 78.1% had FEV₁PP <80% and 63.7% had ≥1 CAE during the pre-reslizumab index period.

Results of the study show that HRU reductions were significant post-reslizumab treatment compared with measurements prior, 10.2% vs 36.7%, respectively.

Other notable findings include a evident reduction in emergency room visits, 29.3% vs 66.0%; urgent care visits, 26.9% vs 46.9%; and unscheduled outpatient visits, 50.7% vs 79.0% (all p<0.005).

“Sixty-seven percent of patients achieved improvement in FEV1PP of ≥5%, and 71.8% achieved ACT score improvement of ≥3 points (minimal clinically important difference),” the researchers explained. “Among patients with ≥1 index period CAE, 84.7% achieved ≥50% reduction in CAE rate post reslizumab.”

The researchers noted in their conclusion that their “study findings reflect outcomes in reslizumab-treated SEA patients who were symptomatic and poorly controlled, but had relatively few prior CAEs compared with clinical trial populations, suggesting that a need for symptom relief is an important driver of use of biologics in clinical practice.”

—Edan Stanley

Reference:
Wechsler M, Peters S, Chipps B, et al. Real-World Evidence of Reductions in Health Resource Utilization (HRU) and Improved Efficacy Outcomes Associated with Reslizumab Treatment in Adults with Severe Eosinophilic Asthma (SEA) in the United States. Poster presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting; March 13–16, 2020; Philadelphia, PA, USA.