Omalizumab aids asthmatics with cat allergy

Internal Medicine News, Oct 15, 2007 by Robert Finn

SAN FRANCISCO -- When added to current asthma treatments, omalizumab reduced the number of rescue bursts of corticosteroids used by patients allergic to cat dander, according to a poster presentation by Marc Massanari, Pharm.D., at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society.

Patients receiving omalizumab required 25% fewer steroid puffs than did patients receiving placebo. In addition, patients receiving omalizumab had a 100% increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 second ([FEV.sub.1]), compared with a 33% increase in patients taking placebo. Both differences were statistically significant.

The results came from a pooled population of 2,236 patients enrolled in five placebo-controlled clinical trials of omalizumab. Dr. Massanari and his colleagues, all of whom are employed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., East Hanover, N.J., focused on the 1,589 patients who had moderate to severe and persistent IgE-mediated asthma and who showed sensitivity to cat dander.

Of those patients, 811 received omalizumab and 778 received placebo administered subcutaneously every 2 or 4 weeks. The dose was selected based on pretreatment total IgE level and body weight.

In addition to improvements in the number of rescue steroid puffs required and in [FEV.sub.1], omalizumab patients had significant decreases in rescue beta-agonist puffs. In addition, patients receiving omalizumab showed significant improvements in all domains of the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire and significant decreases in mean total asthma scores, compared with placebo.

The study was supported by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Genentech Inc.