A study that NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre recruited asthma patients into, has announced positive results.
AstraZeneca has announced that high-level results from the PONENTE Phase IIIb open-label trial showed Fasenra (benralizumab) eliminated the use of maintenance oral corticosteroids (OCS) in OCS-dependent asthma patients with a broad range of blood eosinophil counts.
On the first primary endpoint, 62% of patients achieved complete elimination of daily OCS use. On the second primary endpoint, 81% of patients achieved complete elimination or were able to reduce their daily OCS dose to 5mg or less when further reduction was not possible due to adrenal insufficiency. Both primary endpoints were sustained for at least four weeks while maintaining asthma control. PONENTE included nearly 600 patients in Europe, North America, South America, and Taiwan.