Reslizumab Treatment for Moderate to Severe Asthma with Elevated Blood Eosinophil Levels

Reslizumab for inadequately controlled asthma with elevated blood eosinophil counts: results from two multicentre, parallel, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials

Elevated numbers of blood eosinophils are a risk factor for asthma exacerbations. Reslizumab is a humanised anti-interleukin 5 monoclonal antibody that disrupts eosinophil maturation and promotes programmed cell death. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of reslizumab in patients with inadequately controlled, moderate-to-severe asthma.We did two duplicate, multicentre, double-blind, parallel-group, randomised, placebo-controlled phase 3 trials. Both trials enrolled patients with asthma aged 12-75 years (from 128 clinical research centres in study 1 and 104 centres in study 2) from Asia, Australia, North America, South America, South Africa, and Europe, whose asthma was inadequately c…

Reslizumab (RES) in patients (pts) with inadequately controlled asthma and elevated blood eosinophils (EOS): Analysis of two phase 3, placebo-controlled trials

Background: RES reduced exacerbation frequency and improved lung function and asthma control in pts with inadequately controlled asthma and elevated blood EOS in two placebo (PBO)-controlled, phase 3 studies (Castro et al. Lancet Resp Med 2015). Aims/objectives: To determine the efficacy of RES in the subset of pts in these studies meeting the definition of ATS/ERS-defined inadequately controlled asthma. Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of pooled data from two replicate, 52-week, PBO-controlled studies of RES (3mg/kg IV Q4W) in pts with inadequately controlled asthma and blood EOS ≥400/µL who were using medium-to-high dose inhaled corticosteroids; primary results have been reported. As…

Eosinophilic and Noneosinophilic Asthma

Background Phenotypic characteristics of patients with eosinophilic and noneosinophilic asthma are not well characterized in global, real-life severe asthma cohorts. Research Question What is the prevalence of eosinophilic and noneosinophilic phenotypes in the population with severe asthma, and can these phenotypes be differentiated by clinical and biomarker variables? Study Design and Methods This was an historical registry study. Adult patients with severe asthma and available blood eosinophil count (BEC) from 11 countries enrolled in the International Severe Asthma Registry (January 1, 2015-September 30, 2019) were categorized according to likelihood of eosinophilic phenotype using a pre…