The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of Cinqair (reslizumab) to use along with other asthma medications as a maintenance treatment for severe asthma in sufferers over the age of 18. The treatment was approved for asthma relief in patients that have a history of severe attacks in spite of taking their current medications.
Asthma, a chronic disease that causes inflammation in the lungs, can lead to the narrowing of the airways, making it almost impossible to breathe. Severe attacks can lead to hospitalization and can be life-threatening. Records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that as of 2013, over 22 million Americas suffer from the disease, and over 400,000 asthma-related hospitalizations occur each year.
Cinqair, manufactured by Teva Pharmaceuticals in Frazier, Pennsylvania, will be administered by a health care professional once every four weeks through an intravenous infusion in a clinical setting. The treatment works to lessen severe attacks by reducing the levels of blood eosinophils, a type of blood cell that contributes to asthma’s development.
The agency approved the treatment after reviewing four double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials, conducted on patients with severe asthma who were currently using available disease therapies. Patients were administered either Cinqair or a placebo every four weeks in addition to their normal treatment regimen.
The findings revealed the patients receiving Cinqair had fewer attacks, experienced a longer period of time for an attack to begin, and the treatment resulted in significant improvement in lung function, measured by the volume of air exhaled by the patients.
The FDA noted in their press release Cinqair can cause some serious side effects, among them, allergic-type reactions, anaphylaxis, cancer and muscle pain. Some of these can be life-threatening.
Badrul Chowdhury, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Rheumatology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, commented, “Health care providers and their patients with severe asthma now have another treatment option to consider when the disease is not well controlled by their current asthma therapies.”