Abstract

Background: In Canada nearly 8% of patients with asthma have severe disease. Benralizumab is an anti-IL-5Ra antibody for add-on maintenance therapy of severe eosinophilic asthma.

Objective: To describe the change in asthma control in the first 6 months of benralizumab treatment.

Methods: POWER is a prospective observational study (NCT03833141; POWER, part of XALOC). Patients were recruited from 23 clinics across Canada from 2019, with an inclusion criteria of blood eosinophils =300c/µL, Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ-6) score =1.5, and benralizumab naïveté. Treatment response to benralizumab was assessed via patient-reported ACQ-6 at baseline and 24 weeks following first treatment. Asthma control status was reported by full control (mean<0.75), partial control (0.75-1.5), and poor control (>1.5). Minimum clinically important difference (MCID) in ACQ-6 is a change of 0.5 units.

Results: 88 patients were included in this interim analysis. At week 24, the change in ACQ-6 met the MCID regardless of control status. The mean change for the full cohort was -1.5 (95%CI: -1.8, -1.2), triple the MCID (Figure 1).

Conclusion: Patients demonstrated a significant and clinically meaningful difference in asthma control 6 months after initiating treatment with benralizumab. These results show a sustained and impactful benefit in patients initiating therapy with benralizumab.