New asthma drugs in the Pipeline

While doing some research and advocating for myself in hopes of obtaining the anti-IL drug, Dupilumab (on a compassionate use basis), I discovered that there are several other biologics in this new generation of targeted asthma therapy drugs that are in various stages of development.

Here’s a list of some of the new biologics coming soon to pharmacy near you. Ok, well maybe not real soon or even to a pharmacy near you, but just the fact that there are new types of medications in the pipeline is exciting news, especially if your asthma doesn’t respond to standard treatment. The data coming from some of the clinical trials, looks promising. Looks even more promising if you’re a steroid dependent or have allergic or eosinophylic asthma

Given the projected costs of these new drugs (some of them exceeding $3,000 per monthly dose), it’ll be interesting to see how effective they turn out to be. As of this writing there are only two biologics that are FDA approved and currently on the market.

Currently Marketed Drugs:

Anti-IgE Antibodies:
Xolair (omalizumab; Novartis/Roche)

Anti-IL-5 Antibodies:
Nucala (mepolizumab; GlaxoSmithKline)

Drugs in development:

Anti-IgE Antibodies:
Ligelizumab ( Novartis)

Anti-IL-5 Antibodies:
Cinqair (reslizumab; Teva)

Benralizumab (AstraZeneca)

Anti-IL-13 Antibodies:
Tralokinumab (AstraZeneca)
Lebrikizumab (Roche)

Anti-IL-13/Anti-IL-4 receptor Antibodies:
Dupilumab (Sanofi/Regeneron)
Dectrekumab ( Novartis)