First Outcomes of Anti-IL5 Biological Therapy in Patients with Severe Asthma in Croatia

Currently in Croatia, there are 275 severe asthma patients treated with biological therapy. Most of them (201) are receiving anti-IL5 therapy. To assess the outcomes of the most used biological therapy in severe asthma patients in Croatia, we conducted a real-life study, including 41 patients receiving anti-IL5 therapy at Clinical Center for Lung Diseases Jordanovac. Some of the parameters we used to assess the therapy outcomes were: number of annual exacerbations of asthma, disease control measured by ACT scale, FeNO, lung function parameters, and corticosteroid dose reduction. Results: 41 patients were receiving three different anti-IL5 agents – mepolizumab (18), benralizumab (11), and reslizumab (12). All of the three used therapeutics lead to a significant reduction in the number of annual exacerbations of asthma (P<0.05), significant disease control measured by ACT scale, and an increase in FEV1, VC, and PAAK (P<0.05), without statistically significant difference between different therapeutics. Only mepolizumab therapy was associated with a statistically significant decrease in FeNO. Mepolizumab and benralizumab therapy were associated with statistically significant improvement in DLCO. Reslizumab and mepolizumab therapy were associated with the fastest corticosteroid dose reduction (p<0.05), where reslizumab lead to the fastest corticosteroid dose reduction in our patients. Although our data offers some insight into biological therapeutics outcomes, we need a larger group of patients to make more precise conclusions.