The drug benralizumab is a biologic that kills white blood cells known as eosinophils. This type of white blood cells has been found to be present in large numbers in asthma patients and has been associated with asthma severity.
If approved by the FDA, benralizumab would be another drug to add to the line of treatments for severe asthma.
Study author Dr. J. Mark FitzGerald said, “We can offer patients who frequently require courses of oral corticosteroids and have a certain level of eosinophils [an allergy-related cell easily measured in the blood] a very effective treatment. With the right patient with the right characteristics, we can significantly modify the level of asthma severity.”
“The treatments that we have now are done every two weeks or once a month, but benralizumab can be given every two months, which may lower the cost,” Dr. FitzGerald added.
The most common side effects of the new drug include worsening asthma and cold-like symptoms.
“These biologicals treat patients that were previously untreatable, and these treatments are getting better and better,” concluded Dr. Alan Mensch, chief of pulmonary medicine at Northwell Health’s Plainview Hospital.