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Updated: Nov 4, 2025
Bronchial Thermoplasty: A Novel Therapeutic Approach to Severe Asthma
Published on: November 4, 2010
Real-world effectiveness of mepolizumab in patients with severe asthma and associated comorbidities
Thomas Casale1, Nestor A Molfino2, Jared Silver3
1Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida.
Background:
Patients with severe asthma frequently have associated comorbidities, which can compound existing symptoms, complicating asthma management.
Objective:
To describe the real-world effectiveness of mepolizumab in patients with severe asthma stratified by common overlapping comorbidities.
Methods:
This was a retrospective analysis of patients with asthma from the MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Database initiating mepolizumab treatment (index date). Eligible patients had more than or equal to 1 claim (excluding claims for diagnostic tests) with a diagnosis code for more than or equal to 1 of 7 comorbidities (atopic disease, nasal polyps, chronic sinusitis, obesity, respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and depression/anxiety) during the 12-month preindex baseline period; these were used to stratify patients into 7 nonmutually exclusive subgroups. Outcomes included asthma exacerbations and exacerbation-related health care resource utilization during the 12-month baseline and follow-up periods. Each patient acted as their own control.
Results:
Of the 639 patients included, the most common comorbidities were atopic diseases (73.2%), respiratory infections (55.6%), and chronic sinusitis (45.1%). Across all 7 comorbidity subgroups, there were significant (P < .05) reductions of 38% to 55% and 57% to 83% in exacerbations and exacerbations requiring hospitalization, respectively, during the follow-up vs baseline period, except for exacerbations requiring hospitalization in the nasal polyp subgroup, owing to the small subgroup sample size. During the follow-up vs baseline periods, mean number of oral corticosteroids claims was significantly (P < .001) reduced by 29% to 38%; 39% to 47% of patients achieved greater than or equal to 50% oral corticosteroids dose reduction. Significant reductions in exacerbation-related health care resource utilization were also observed.
Conclusion:
Mepolizumab treatment provided real-world clinical benefits in patients.
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