The International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR)’s newest study has found that keeping severe asthma patients on high oral corticosteroid exposure (HOCS*) or initiating biologics can both result in improvements in severe asthma. However, HOCS patients who received biologics experienced greater improvements.
Patients who received biologics had a 72.9% reduction in exacerbation rates, and nearly one-third the risk and frequency of asthma-related emergency department visits and hospitalisations when matched and compared to patients who did not receive biologics.
The study, which used data from 996 pairs of patients across 19 countries from ISAR, also found that patients who received biologics were over twice as likely to achieve a daily OCS dose of <5mg than patients who did not.
“These findings support evolving guidelines recommending biologics in patients showing improvement on long-term OCS. They prove that biologics can be a cost-effective strategy to improve outcomes in asthma patients while reducing high oral corticosteroid exposure,”
Remarked Professor David Price, who leads the ISAR.
To learn more about the study, please read the full publication, titled “Impact of initiatinG bioLogics In patients with severe asThma on long-Term OCS or frEquent Rescue steroids (GLITTER): data from the International Severe Asthma Registry” in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
*HOCS was defined as long-term OCS ≥1 year or ≥4 courses of rescue OCS within a 12-month period