Abstract
Background In asthma, clinical response is characterized by disease improvement with treatment, whereas clinical remission is characterized by long-term disease stabilization with or without ongoing treatment. The proportion of patients receiving tezepelumab who responded to treatment and those who achieved on-treatment clinical remission was assessed in the NAVIGATOR ( NCT03347279 ) and DESTINATION ( NCT03706079 ) studies of severe, uncontrolled asthma. Methods NAVIGATOR and DESTINATION were phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies; DESTINATION was an extension of NAVIGATOR. Complete clinical response was defined as achieving all of the following: ≥50% reduction in exacerbations versus the previous year, improvements in pre-bronchodilator (BD) forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) of ≥100 mL or ≥5%, improvements in Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ)-6 score of ≥0.5 and physicians’ assessment of asthma improvement. On-treatment clinical remission was defined as an ACQ-6 total score ≤1.5, stable lung function (pre-BD FEV 1 >95% of baseline) and no exacerbations or use of oral corticosteroids during the time periods assessed. Results Higher proportions of tezepelumab than placebo recipients achieved complete clinical response over weeks 0–52 (46% versus 24%; OR: 2.83 [95% CI: 2.10–3.82]), and on-treatment clinical remission over weeks 0–52 (28.5% versus 21.9%; OR: 1.44 [95% CI: 0.95–2.19]) and weeks >52–104 (33.5% versus 26.7%; OR: 1.44 [95% CI: 0.97–2.14]). Tezepelumab recipients who achieved on-treatment clinical remission versus complete clinical response at week 52 had better preserved lung function and lower inflammatory biomarkers at baseline, and fewer exacerbations in the 12 months before the study. Conclusions Among patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma, tezepelumab treatment was associated with an increased likelihood of achieving complete clinical response and on-treatment clinical remission compared with placebo. Both are clinically important outcomes but may be driven by different patient characteristics.