5 Ways Biologics Are Revolutionizing Severe Asthma Treatment

If a maximized therapy approach isn’t keeping your asthma under control, our expert team at Fivestar Pulmonary Associates has an advanced treatment solution that can. Let’s take a closer look at how biologics are transforming severe asthma management and outcomes. 

When uncontrolled asthma becomes severe

For most people with asthma, trigger avoidance along with a combination of quick-relief and controller medications is all it takes to manage the condition and breathe easier. 

But for people with severe asthma, symptoms like chest tightness, coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing persist daily despite adding a second controller medication and/or switching to a high-dose corticosteroid inhaler. Signs of poor asthma control include:

• Needing to use your rescue inhaler multiple times a week
• Waking from sleep with shortness of breath or coughing
• Having to avoid exercise or other activities due to asthma
• Being hospitalized for asthma two or more times in a year 

Up to 10% of people with asthma have a severe type — either allergic asthma, eosinophilic asthma, or non-eosinophilic asthma — that remains unmanaged by the highest dose of inhaled corticosteroids and additional controller medicines.

Severe asthma therapy tailored to your biology 

Biologics are lab-made monoclonal antibodies (moAbs) — specialized proteins that target specific inflammatory molecules. They bind to those molecules — like a key in a lock — and effectively block them from damaging or impairing healthy cells. 

As a therapy for severe asthma, biologics interrupt the immune cascade that drives airway swelling and breathing symptoms. This personalized therapy targets the specific inflammatory pathways involved in your type of severe asthma.

When you’re exposed to an asthma trigger, biologics disrupt the inflammatory molecules released by your immune system. Once these molecules are effectively switched off, you experience reduced airway reactivity, easier breathing, and better asthma control. 

A game-changing treatment for severe asthma

Biologics are transforming severe asthma management by shifting the standard of care from a one-size-fits-all treatment approach to a highly targeted and personalized therapy. Targeting the molecular pathways of asthma comes with major benefits, including:

1. Drastically reduced asthma exacerbations

Biologics are highly effective at reducing attack frequency and severity. Studies show they can reduce symptom occurrence and intensity by 50% or more.

2. Fewer lost workdays and visits to the ER

When asthma attacks are milder and happen less often, you’re much less likely to find yourself dealing with a life-threatening exacerbation. This translates to fewer emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and lost workdays.

3. Improved lung function and easier breathing

Beyond preventing asthma attacks, biologics support sustained improvements in lung function and breathing. Patients report far less wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness, as well as a significantly improved capacity for physical activity without shortness of breath.

4. Reducing or eliminating oral steroid use

Severe asthma management typically involves oral corticosteroid use, which can lead to serious side effects over time, including osteoporosis and diabetes. Biologics allow many patients to significantly cut their steroid dose or stop using them entirely.

5. Improvement of co-existing conditions 

Many patients with severe asthma also suffer from conditions like chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps or atopic dermatitis. Certain biologics can treat both severe asthma and these related co-morbidities at the same time.

Can biologics get your asthma under control? 

Instead of general immune suppression, biologics target the underlying molecular cause of your specific asthma type. This precision medication approach translates to much better asthma management with minimal potential for side effects. 

Even better, periodic maintenance dosing means easy treatment adherence. You gain effective long-term asthma control and an improved quality of life with a simple in-office injection once every 4-8 weeks. 

Better asthma control is always possible. To find out if you can benefit from biologics, fill out our Asthma Control Test online and then schedule an appointment with our experts at Fivestar Pulmonary Associates in Allen, McKinney, or Plano, Texas.