Effectiveness of omalizumab in patients 50 years and older with severe persistent allergic asthma.

Omalizumab is approved for the treatment of severe allergic asthma.To compare the efficacy of omalizumab therapy in patients 50 years or older with patients younger than 50 years.Between November 2005 and November 2007 a total of 174 asthma patients 50 years or older (40.7% male, 51.1% taking oral corticosteroids, and mean [SD] serum IgE level of 315 [353] U/L) and 297 asthma patients younger than 50 years (40.0% male, 50.5% taking oral corticosteroids, and mean [SD] serum IgE level of 363 [431] U/L) who met the European Union criteria for add-on therapy with anti-IgE were treated prospectively with omalizumab for 4 months as part of 2 postmarketing surveillance trials.Compared with the pre…