ICER final report and recommendations on tezepelumab for severe asthma

The USA’s Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) yesterday released a Final Evidence Report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of tezepelumab, which is under development by the UK’s AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) in partnership with US biotech Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) for the treatment of severe asthma.

Downloads:  Final Evidence Report |  Report-at-a-Glance |  Policy Recommendations

“ICER previously reviewed biologic therapies for moderate-to-severe asthma, and none of those available at that time were effective in patients without allergic or eosinophilic asthma,” said Dr David Rind, the ICER’s chief medical officer. “Tezepelumab has a new mechanism of action and does reduce exacerbations even for patients without eosinophilia who really have not had good options for treatment until now. For other asthma patients for whom biologics are available, tezepelumab is not clearly superior to those options, and it may be less effective at getting patients off oral steroids than dupilumab,” he noted.