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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: New Asthma Drug
Aired June 20, 2003 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of asthma sufferers may soon be breathing easier. Approval of a new radical treatment is expected soon from government regulators.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to tell us about how it works and when you might be able to get it.
Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, this is a pretty exciting thing for those who have asthma allergies. This is a pretty common condition. The drug is called Xolair, and you're going to start hearing a lot about this. The reason being is that the FDA may approve this drug today for severe asthma allergy sufferers.
Just a couple of statistics first of all. There's about 17 people that have asthma out there in the United States today. About 10 million or so have what's known as allergic asthma. That is to say their asthma is actually caused by allergies. About half a million or so have very severe allergic asthma. Imagine breathing through a straw. That's exactly what it's like. You saw the symptoms cough pop up there, coughing, wheezing, all sorts of symptoms. Again, this drug may be approved today.
The proof really lies in the fact that there have been about 6,000 people enrolled in a trial looking at how well this particular drug works. One to two monthly shots. The costs, you can see there, pretty expensive medication. But the proof is there in terms of actually reducing asthma attacks by a half. These are some of the best numbers you'll see for asthma medications, can eliminate the use of inhaled steroids.
Also finally, Daryn, some of these people are on up to 15 to 16 medications. One of the guys was describing it always feels like he just ran the 100 yard dash. Can eliminate the need nor a lot of those medications possibly with this.
KAGAN: How does it work? Why is it better than other meds out there? And what about side effects?
GUPTA: It's a very novel sort of medication. There are a lot of asthma medications, a lot of medications that treat the inflammation associated with asthma. But again, those medications are treats inflammation after it's already occur. The way this medication, Xolair, would work is basically to try to prevent the inflammation from ever occurring in the first place.
And just to be a little science-y for a second, there's all sorts of different antibodies that float around the body. One of the important ones is an antibody known as IGE. Many years ago, millions of years ago, the IGE was probably in our bodies to protect us against parasites. Parasites really don't exist anymore, they're not a threat to humans, so this IG is sort of floating around, probably causing a lot of this allergic response. This drug targets that, and may prevent the inflammation from ever occurring in the first place. Side effects seem to be pretty limited, at least so far.
The biggest thing that people are sort of concerned about was there was a possible cancer link early on in the trial. It doesn't appear that that cancer link actually panned out to be anything more than a placebo, what they saw with the placebo, as well.
So the cost I think is going to be the big issue. Only approved for severe asthma allergies. That's the approval process if it happens today. That's about 500,000 people or so.
KAGAN: Does that mean those are the only people who can get it, or the only people that an insurance company will pay for it?
GUPTA: That's probably what it's going to be right now. It's probably going to be so expensive that it's going to sort of decline off-label use. But they're studying it for hay fever, less allergic asthma. This may be the new allergy medication a lot of people have been waiting for.
KAGAN: A lot of wheezing people happy to hear that.
Sanjay, thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 20, 2003 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of asthma sufferers may soon be breathing easier. Approval of a new radical treatment is expected soon from government regulators.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to tell us about how it works and when you might be able to get it.
Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, this is a pretty exciting thing for those who have asthma allergies. This is a pretty common condition. The drug is called Xolair, and you're going to start hearing a lot about this. The reason being is that the FDA may approve this drug today for severe asthma allergy sufferers.
Just a couple of statistics first of all. There's about 17 people that have asthma out there in the United States today. About 10 million or so have what's known as allergic asthma. That is to say their asthma is actually caused by allergies. About half a million or so have very severe allergic asthma. Imagine breathing through a straw. That's exactly what it's like. You saw the symptoms cough pop up there, coughing, wheezing, all sorts of symptoms. Again, this drug may be approved today.
The proof really lies in the fact that there have been about 6,000 people enrolled in a trial looking at how well this particular drug works. One to two monthly shots. The costs, you can see there, pretty expensive medication. But the proof is there in terms of actually reducing asthma attacks by a half. These are some of the best numbers you'll see for asthma medications, can eliminate the use of inhaled steroids.
Also finally, Daryn, some of these people are on up to 15 to 16 medications. One of the guys was describing it always feels like he just ran the 100 yard dash. Can eliminate the need nor a lot of those medications possibly with this.
KAGAN: How does it work? Why is it better than other meds out there? And what about side effects?
GUPTA: It's a very novel sort of medication. There are a lot of asthma medications, a lot of medications that treat the inflammation associated with asthma. But again, those medications are treats inflammation after it's already occur. The way this medication, Xolair, would work is basically to try to prevent the inflammation from ever occurring in the first place.
And just to be a little science-y for a second, there's all sorts of different antibodies that float around the body. One of the important ones is an antibody known as IGE. Many years ago, millions of years ago, the IGE was probably in our bodies to protect us against parasites. Parasites really don't exist anymore, they're not a threat to humans, so this IG is sort of floating around, probably causing a lot of this allergic response. This drug targets that, and may prevent the inflammation from ever occurring in the first place. Side effects seem to be pretty limited, at least so far.
The biggest thing that people are sort of concerned about was there was a possible cancer link early on in the trial. It doesn't appear that that cancer link actually panned out to be anything more than a placebo, what they saw with the placebo, as well.
So the cost I think is going to be the big issue. Only approved for severe asthma allergies. That's the approval process if it happens today. That's about 500,000 people or so.
KAGAN: Does that mean those are the only people who can get it, or the only people that an insurance company will pay for it?
GUPTA: That's probably what it's going to be right now. It's probably going to be so expensive that it's going to sort of decline off-label use. But they're studying it for hay fever, less allergic asthma. This may be the new allergy medication a lot of people have been waiting for.
KAGAN: A lot of wheezing people happy to hear that.
Sanjay, thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
