A London hospital has pioneered a new treatment for people with severe asthma which cannot be controlled with inhalers and steroids.
Tezepelumab, which is delivered by injection, has been found to reduce the number of asthma attacks and admissions to hospital or A&E in patients with severe asthma.
The treatment will be given to patients at the Royal Brompton in Chelsea following a clinical trial conducted in the hospital in 2021.
Researchers found that 43.8 per cent of patients on Tezepelumab experienced an asthma attack, compared with 60.1 per cent of patients who did not receive the drug.
Patients on Tezepelumab had a 79 per cent lower risk of being admitted to hospital or A&E than patients not on the treatment.
People with asthma classed as “severe” have symptoms that are difficult to control even with high doses of medicines. It is the most serious and life-threatening asthma and affects around 200,000 people in the UK.
Claire Newman, a 48-year-old patient from Bexley, recently received her first dose of tezepelumab at the Royal Brompton. Her asthma is so severe that she struggles to move around the house.
She said: “I had tried previous biologics, but this is the one I have been waiting for. My consultant was one of the people who developed this treatment at the Brompton and he is hopeful this could be the treatment that could make a real difference for me, so I’m really excited.”
Tezepelumab works by reducing a certain type of white blood cell to help decrease swelling and irritation of the airways to allow for easier breathing.
It is administered as a monthly injection over the patient’s lifetime.
Clinical nurse specialists also provide guidance on how to administer the injection at home, meaning the patient can avoid frequent visits to hospital.
Dr Pujan Patel, a consultant respiratory physician at Royal Brompton Hospital and clinical lead for the hospital’s severe asthma service, said: “Where most people with asthma can control their symptoms with preventative and rescue inhalers, the patients I see in our severe asthma clinic are on long, repetitive courses of steroids which can help in the short term, but which have their own long term side effects including weight gain, skin thinning, brittle bones and stomach ulcers.
“During the clinical trial which has led to tezepelumab being used in the clinic today, nearly 70 per cent of patients reported a response to the medication. Whether this was needing to use their rescue inhaler less frequently or being able to do more activities or not needing to use steroids at all, many of the patients describe the drug as ‘life-changing’.”
More than 3,600 children were hospitalised across London in 2021/22, an increase of more than 1,400 on the year before.
Draft guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended the use of tezepelumab as an “additional maintenance treatment” for people over 12 with severe asthma.
The medicine could be offered to up to 60,000 people in England.
