Health care resource utilization of patients with asthma and food allergy initiating omalizumab.

BACKGROUND

Patients with comorbid asthma and food allergy (FA) are at increased risk of adverse outcomes for both conditions. Omalizumab, a biologic for moderate to severe persistent asthma, received recent approval for FA.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to compare FA-, asthma/FA-related, and all-cause health care resource utilization and costs before and after omalizumab initiation among patients with asthma and FA.

METHODS

This study retrospectively analyzed data from IQVIA PharMetrics Plus claims among patients who were 6 years or older, had asthma and FA (medical claim for FA or anaphylactic reaction due to food), had initiated omalizumab between 2018 and 2021, and had 12 months of data before (baseline) and after (follow-up) omalizumab initiation (index date).

RESULTS

Of 523 patients who initiated omalizumab (mean age, 33.1 years; 71.5% female), the prevalence of FA-related (12.4% vs 4.8%), asthma/FA-related (25.0% vs 15.5%), and all-cause (44.6% vs 30.2%; all P < .0001) emergency department visits reduced at follow-up versus baseline. Significant reductions were also observed for the prevalence of hospitalizations (FA: 1.5% vs 0.2%; asthma/FA: 12.3% vs 7.4%; all-cause: 13.2% vs 7.5%) and total FA-related health care costs per patient ($1600 vs $1502; all P < .0001). The total asthma/FA-related ($5,966 vs $5,683, P = .8375) and all-cause ($24,874 vs $27,298, P = .6724) health care costs were similar from baseline to follow-up after excluding the omalizumab costs.

CONCLUSIONS

FA-related, asthma/FA-related, and all-cause emergency department visits and hospitalizations significantly reduced in the 12 months after omalizumab initiation. These results provide valuable and timely real-world evidence that omalizumab has the potential to reduce the acute care utilization in patients with comorbid asthma and FA.