Center of Excellence: Moderate to Severe Asthma: News & Perspective

• Oral Masitinib Improves Severe Asthma The small-molecule biologic reduces exacerbations in patients not responsive to steroids, new research shows.
  Medscape Medical News, May 28, 2020
• Asthma Patients Advised to Continue Therapy During Pandemic Two physicians cautioned colleagues that COVID-19 could be spawning hazardous behavior as patients question whether they should continue using immunosuppressive drugs during the pandemic.
  Medscape Medical News, May 16, 2020
• Alert EU Panel Backs Triple Combo Asthma Inhaler With Digital Sensor Enerzair Breezhaler combines indacaterol, glycopyrronium, and mometasone and comes with an optional digital sensor that collects data on patient use to support adherence.
  International Approvals, May 06, 2020
• Severe Asthma Abstracts From 2020 AAAAI Annual Meeting   Dr Michael Wechsler reviews key abstracts relating to severe asthma. The abstracts were published online after AAAAI was canceled because of concern over COVID-19.
  Medscape, April 13, 2020
• AAAAI 2020Asthma Patients: Stay on Steroids in Face of COVID-19, Say Experts Patients with asthma should stay on their preventive steroid therapy, both to protect against infection with COVID-19 as well as if they succumb to the virus, say experts in respiratory medicine.
  Medscape Medical News, March 20, 2020
• AAAAI 2020 Read clinically focused news coverage of key developments from AAAAI 2020
  Medscape Allergy & Immunology, March 05, 2020
• Exposing the Role of Psychosocial Stress on Asthma Aaron Holley, MD, calls for more attention to the role of behavioral health in the clinical practice of asthma.
  Medscape Critical Care, February 28, 2020
• Alert FDA OKs Asthma Drug Benralizumab (Fasenra) for At-Home Use The Fasenra Pen is a prefilled, single-use autoinjector for use as adjunctive maintenance treatment for adults and for children aged 12 years or older who have severe eosinophilic asthma.
  FDA Approvals, October 04, 2019
• ERS 2019One Inhaler Effective for Asthma Triple Therapy When a long-acting muscarinic antagonist is added to a single inhaler with a two-drug combination, lung function improves and asthma exacerbations decrease, according to new research.
  Medscape Medical News, October 01, 2019
• More Glucocorticoid, Not LABA, May Control Black Kids' Asthma Researchers report that some black children respond quite differently to treatment escalation than other racial/ethnic groups -- in a way that could change clinical practice.
  Medscape Medical News, September 27, 2019
• Alert FDA OKs Mepolizumab for Younger Children With Severe Asthma Nucala is the first biologic approved in the US for children aged 6 to 11 years with severe eosinophilic asthma.
  News Alerts, September 12, 2019
• Alert FDA OKs Two Self-Administered Options for Mepolizumab (Nucala) In addition to mepolizumab subcutaneous injection given by a health provider, the drug will also be available as an autoinjector and prefilled safety syringe for at-home use.
  FDA Approvals, June 06, 2019
• One Bronchial Thermoplasty Treatment Beats Three for Asthma Bronchial thermoplasty that targets the six most affected airways in patients with uncontrolled asthma is more effective than the standard therapy that involves three sessions, new research shows.
  Medscape Medical News, May 20, 2019
• New App Boosts Kids' Asthma Management After 1 year of use, e-AT helped prevent severe attacks, reduced school absences and lost work time, cut hospital admissions, and improved quality of life.
  Medscape Medical News, May 16, 2019
• Alert European Commission OKs Dupilumab for Severe Asthma Dupilumab is for patients with moderate-to-severe asthma and increased blood eosinophil and/or raised fractional exhaled nitric oxide levels poorly controlled with other medicines.
  International Approvals, May 07, 2019
• Inhaler Errors Common Among Kids Hospitalized for Asthma Older children and those using a spacer with a mouthpiece, rather than a mask, were particularly likely to skip a critical step in their inhaler technique.
  Medscape Medical News, April 25, 2019
• Addressing Asthma Management: What Clinicians Told Us The Medscape/CHEST survey reveals differences in how pulmonologists and other clinicians manage patients with moderate to severe asthma.
  CHEST and Medscape, April 24, 2019
• EU Panel Backs Dupilumab (Dupixent) for Moderate to Severe Asthma The CHMP recommends dupilumab for patients with moderate to severe asthma and increased blood eosinophil and/or raised fractional exhaled nitric oxide levels poorly controlled with other medications.
  International Approvals, March 04, 2019
• AAAAI 2019 Read clinically focused news coverage of key developments from AAAAI 2019
  Medscape Allergy & Immunology, February 12, 2019
• Guideline Outlines Step-down Therapy for Asthma A new 'yardstick' provides evidence-based guidance for stepping down therapy in patients who have achieved sustained asthma control.
  Medscape Medical News, February 11, 2019