People with severe asthma often take daily steroid medications to help prevent attacks, yet the drugs can bring about serious side effects. Is there another way?
In a new trial, researchers examined how much an add-on treatment, already approved in the United States and United Kingdom, for severe asthma helped people with their symptoms and need for steroid pills.
They found that an injected antibody called tezepelumab allowed 90% of people with severe asthma to reduce their use of daily steroids — and half of patients who received the injection were able to stop taking steroid pills altogether.
Two-thirds of participants in the year-long trial also saw their asthma attacks disappear.
“This is an incredibly encouraging development for the future of asthma care that could transform the lives of people with severe asthma,” said Samantha Walker, who directs research at Asthma + Lung UK, a nonprofit advocacy group for people with asthma.
She wasn’t involved in the new trial, which was led by researchers at King's College London and funded by drugmakers AstraZeneca and Amgen.
Severe asthma can be debilitating and even life-threatening. The daily steroids that patients often use to help control their asthma can encourage osteoporosis, diabetes and vulnerability to infections, the researchers noted.
Tezepelumab is an injected antibody that’s designed to target parts of the immune system, leading to reductions in lung inflammation.
The new trial involved more than 300 people with severe asthma recruited from 68 clinical centers across 11 countries. Patients got monthly injections of tezepelumab for a year. They also filled out questionnaires on their asthma symptoms/medications seven months into the trial, and then again at the trial’s end.
Half of participants were able to stop their use of daily steroid tablets and two-thirds ceased having asthma attacks. These benefits typically began within two weeks of taking tezepelumab, the researchers noted.
Study lead author Dr. David Jackson is clinical professor of respiratory immunology at King's College London. In a college news release, he called the trial results “an important step forward for patients with the most severe form of asthma.”
“As tezepelumab also suppresses allergy related symptoms and improves chronic rhinosinusitis as well, the results are particularly exciting for patients with severe asthma who suffer with both upper and lower airway symptoms,” Jackson added.
Walker agreed. “Studies like this show the positive impact that research can make on providing potentially life-changing treatment for people with asthma and other lung conditions,” she said in the news release.
Tezepelumab isn’t the first such antibody treatment to make inroads against asthma. As the researchers pointed out, another King's College London trial, conducted last year, reported similar effectiveness from another approved antibody, benralizumab.
The study findings were presented at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2025 on Nov 27. They were published Nov. 26 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.