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May 2 is considered the World Asthma Day. Organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), a joint organization of health organizations, it is a day to annually raise awareness about asthma worldwide.
In recent years, various highly effective asthma medications have been developed; however, some are too expensive to prescribe.
On World Asthma Day, CareNet conducted a survey on adult asthma treatment among physicians who treat adult asthma. The survey covered 100 physicians engaged in the treatment of adult asthma in the fields of “Respiratory Medicine” or “Allergy,” and received 63 valid responses. The results revealed the following conclusions.
The average number of adult asthma patients treated was 139 per month for less than 200 beds, 74 per month for more than 200 beds, and the average number of high-dose ICS (inhaled corticosteroid) prescription patients was 32 per month for both. The percentage of patients with high-dose ICS prescriptions using a biologic was 14% for those with less than 200 beds and 21% for those with more than 200 beds.
The average percentage of each biologic* used is shown in the figure below, with DUPIXENT accounting for the largest percentage of those with less than 200 beds (30 %), followed by FASENRA(28%).
Among those with more than 200 beds, DUPIXENT accounted for the largest share (39 %), followed by NUCALA (27 %).
*Drugs launcheded by October 2022.
The most common expectation when prescribing biologics was “high efficacy” (68%), far ahead of the others, followed by “high safety” (14%).
Regarding the reason for not prescribing a biologic after prescribing a high-dose ICS, majority of respondents (58%) chose “high drug price,” followed by 23% who chose “current other therapies medicines are sufficient to control the disease,” and 12% who chose “not adopted in the hospital.”
The results showed that a certain number of physicians feel that their asthma is under control even without prescribing biologics.
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