category
Dec 9, 2025
Monthly injection to control severe asthma discovered -- Study
Tribune Online
A global trial has suggested that a monthly injection could allow people with severe asthma to stop taking daily steroid tablets altogether or at least reduce their intake, with no ill effects.
More than 260 million people are thought to have asthma worldwide, and while most can control it with inhalers to treat immediate symptoms and preventive ones to reduce inflammation, those with the most severe asthma often take daily doses of oral corticosteroids as well.
Researchers found that people who received injections of tezepelumab, also known as Tezspire and made by AstraZeneca, every four weeks were able to reduce or even stop taking their steroids, with no ill effects.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved the drug in 2023 as an additional maintenance treatment for patients over 12 whose usual medication does not control their asthma well. It works by binding to and blocking a protein associated with airway inflammation.
The Wayfinder trial, led by King's College London, involved about 300 adults with severe, uncontrolled asthma, who were taking 5 mg-40 mg of steroid tablets daily for a month. They were from 11 countries, including the UK, US, France, Germany, Mexico and Spain.
After one year of treatment, more than half of the participants had stopped taking their steroid medication altogether without their asthma flaring up, while nearly 90% had reduced their steroid use to a low dose. A third had stopped taking steroids after six months.
The trial findings showed that tezepelumab significantly improved asthma symptoms, lung function, and overall quality of life; they were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine and presented at the British Thoracic Society winter meeting.
Symptoms of asthma include coughing, wheezing, breathlessness and chest tightness. Up to 10% of asthmatics have severe disease, and, in the most extreme cases, it can be fatal.
During the study, two-thirds of patients did not have any asthma attacks.
The l
