Updated review of omalizumab to treat uncontrolled pediatric allergic asthma.

Abstract

Asthma has been increasingly recognized as a heterogeneous disease; however, many patients with asthma have allergic asthma (AA). Inhaled corticosteroids and other inhalers have been integral in treating many symptoms of asthma, but these medications do not completely address the disease's underlying mechanism. Pediatric asthma imposes a substantial burden on patients and the health care system. Omalizumab is consistently recognized as an important consideration for add-on therapy in pediatric patients with AA in published guidelines from multiple international societies such as the Global Initiative for Asthma. Since our last report in 2017, the amount of information available regarding the safety and effectiveness of omalizumab in pediatric patients with AA has continued to accumulate and is supported by several observational and real-world data studies. A number of studies including real-world effectiveness studies, post hoc analyses of clinical trial data, and systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses have since expanded the published data on the efficacy and safety of omalizumab in pediatric patients. In this article, we present an updated review of this literature focused on omalizumab therapy in children with AA.