The new asthma treatment that could ‘transform lives’
A monthly injection could enable severe asthma patients to stop taking daily steroid tablets without affecting their symptoms, a new trial has found.
The drug, Tezepelumab (also known as Tezspir and made by AstraZeneca), works by binding to and blocking a protein that drives airway inflammation.
The injection is recommended as an additional maintenance treatment for patients over 12 when usual medications have not proven effective enough.
It was approved for NHS use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2023.
Severe asthma is commonly treated with daily steroid tablets.
However, taking steroids for long periods can have side effects such as mood changes, stomach problems or weight gain, as well as issues that develop over time such as steroid-induced diabetes or osteoporosis.
A new trial, known as Wayfinder and led by King’s College London, included almost 300 people with severe, uncontrolled asthma on a maintenance dose of between 5mg and 40mg of steroid tablets a day.
Patients were recruited from 11 countries including the UK, US, France, Germany, Mexico and Spain.
The trial found treatment with tezepelumab helped 90 per cent of patients reduce their daily steroid dose.
More than half who had the injection were able to stop daily steroids altogether after 12 months.
