Description of Baseline Characteristics of Pediatric Allergic Asthma Patients Including those Initiated on Omalizumab.

Background: Indication of omalizumab in the United States was recently extended to include pediatric (6-11 years) uncontrolled moderate-to-severe allergic asthma patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe baseline characteristics of this population from a real-world dataset.

Methods: Allergic asthma patients and uncontrolled moderate-to-severe allergic asthma patients, aged 6-11 years, were identified in the Allergy Partners Network Electronic Medical Records (2007-2016). The index date for allergic asthma patients was the latest between the second asthma-related visit and the allergic status confirmation. Uncontrolled moderate-to-severe allergic asthma patients were stratified into omalizumab-exposed (index date) or omalizumab-unexposed (index date randomly generated) groups. Characteristics were evaluated during the 12-month preindex period.

Results: A total of 5806 allergic asthma, 37 omalizumab-exposed, and 2620 omalizumab-unexposed patients were selected (mean age approximately 9 years). Allergic asthma and omalizumab-unexposed patients were predominantly white (70.2% and 61.2%) whereas the majority of omalizumab-exposed were African Americans (62.2%). Mean immunoglobulin E was 782.0 IU/ml in allergic asthma patients (available in 2.2%), 1134.4 IU/ml in omalizumab-exposed (available in 100.0%), and 746.1 IU/ml in omalizumab-unexposed (available in 3.1%). Allergic asthma patients were less severe than omalizumab-exposed and omalizumab-unexposed based on the forced expiratory volume in 1 s as a percentage of predicted value (FEV₁% predicted) and the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT). FEV₁% predicted was below normal (<80%) in 42.4% of omalizumab-exposed and 39.1% of omalizumab-unexposed patients, also 63.6% of omalizumab-exposed and 46.7% of omalizumab-unexposed had uncontrolled asthma (C-ACT score <20). In African American omalizumab-exposed patients, FEV₁% predicted was below normal in 47.6% and 55.0% had uncontrolled asthma.

Conclusions: In a real-world setting, pediatric patients with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe allergic asthma have a significant disease burden as shown by high rates of poor lung function, disease control, and symptoms. Currently available treatments could help improve disease management in this population.