AstraZeneca reported that late phase trials show benralizumab’s “compelling efficacy and identify key factors that predict which patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma would respond best to treatment with this potential new medicine.”
The results are being presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2017 in Milan, Italy and published simultaneously today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
.Mark FitzGerald, MD, Director of the Centre for Heart and Lung Health at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and Principal Investigator of the study, said: “As a treating physician, I want to be confident that I am prescribing the right treatment that will provide maximum benefit to patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma. This important analysis shows benralizumab provides enhanced benefits for patients who experience more frequent exacerbations despite being on standard-of-care medicines and/or who present with higher baseline blood eosinophil counts. Knowing this will help us identify which patients can benefit most from benralizumab, and will ultimately help us improve the therapeutic management of severe, uncontrolled asthma.”
Colin Reisner, head of Respiratory, Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca, said: “Severe, uncontrolled asthma affects millions of people around the world and exacerbations can be life-threatening. This new analysis of SIROCCO and CALIMA builds on robust clinical evidence supporting benralizumab for patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma, including more recent data from the Phase III ZONDA trial.”
Benralizumab is under regulatory review in the US, EU, Japan and several other countries and could see decisions early next year.
Asthma affects 315 million individuals worldwide, and up to 10 percent of asthma patients have severe asthma.
