PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 491 - 19 Nov 2005

Omalizumab boosts QOL in severe,persistent asthma

Omalizumab added on to current asthma therapy cansignificantly improve QOL among patients with severe,persistent asthma, show the results of an analysispresented at the 15th Annual Congress of the EuropeanRespiratory Society (ERS), held in Copenhagen,Denmark, in September.

A multinational group of researchers pooled data fromseven controlled trials to assess the QOL* effect ofomalizumab added to current therapy versus placebo,or current therapy alone among patients with severe,persistent allergic asthma.** The analysis showed thatpatients who received omalizumab demonstrated amean increase from baseline in AQLQ scores of1.01 points versus 0.61 points for those who did notreceive omalizumab (p < 0.0001). Moreover, asignificantly greater proportion of omalizumabrecipients achieved clinically meaningful improvementsin QOL scores than those who did not receiveomalizumab (66.3% vs 52.4%). Furthermore, allindividual AQLQ domains showed significantimprovements from baseline for omalizumab recipients,note the researchers.* assessed via the Juniper Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire(AQLQ)** Four of the researchers were affiliated with Novartis.

Beeh K-M, et al. Omalizumab significantly improves quality of life in patientswith severe persistent allergic asthma: a pooled analysis. European RespiratoryJournal Supplement 26 (Suppl. 49): 49 (plus poster) abstr. P424, Sep2005 801021362

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 19 Nov 2005 No. 4911173-5503/10/0491-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved