Biologic therapies are revolutionising severe asthma management by targeting specific inflammatory pathways, shifting care from symptom control to potential remission. Real-world evidence underscores their efficacy across diverse patient profiles, including those with complex asthma cases. However, barriers such as cost and accessibility persist, highlighting the urgent need for equitable healthcare solutions to ensure widespread adoption of these transformative treatments, according to GlobalData.
Initially focused on eosinophilic asthma, biologic treatments like dupilumab interleukin-4 receptor alpha (IL-4Rα) and tezepelumab (anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP)) now show potential for wider application, offering benefits to patients with various inflammatory profiles.
Sravani Meka, Senior Pharmaceutical Analyst, GlobalData, comments, “Biologics have fundamentally changed our approach to severe asthma by enabling targeted, personalised treatment, but expanding access is crucial to realising their full potential. The long-term impact of these therapies could shift asthma management from simply controlling symptoms to achieving remission, like advances seen in fields like rheumatoid arthritis.”
While biologics have shown great promise, barriers such as cost, access, and insurance coverage limit their availability, particularly in underserved communities.
Environmental and social factors further complicate asthma treatment, as many patients in high-risk areas are disproportionately exposed to pollutants that worsen symptoms. Real-world data underscore the need for biologics to reach these populations, as studies reveal these therapies’ success in managing complex asthma cases.
Meka adds, “Tezepelumab’s broad efficacy, even for patients with low eosinophil counts, highlights the potential of biologics to address asthma across diverse profiles and patient demographics.”
Efforts to expand access to biologics in severe asthma treatment are underway, but experts emphasise that success will depend on systemic changes to improve healthcare equity and accessibility.
Meka concludes, “To truly transform asthma care there needs to be sustained attention to cost and accessibility issues, ensuring that biologics are available to all patients who could benefit from them.”
Edits made by EP News Bureau