TY - JOUR T1 - Influence of anti-IL-5/anti-IL-5Rα treatment on work productivity in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00665-2022 SP - 00665-2022 AU - Nora Drick AU - Lina Brinkmann AU - Jan Fuge AU - Tobias Welte AU - Hendrik Suhling Y1 - 2023/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2023/02/23/23120541.00665-2022.abstract N2 - Approximately 3–10% of asthma patients suffer from severe asthma, representing a substantial burden for affected patients due to distinct symptoms, frequent exacerbations and numerous medication side effects [1]. Despite the rather small percentage, patients with severe asthma are responsible for up to 50% of direct and indirect costs associated with bronchial asthma [2]. Hospitalizations and medications are the main driver for high economic costs, but indirect costs including lost work days or loss in productivity due to sickness also lead to steadily increasing healthcare expenses [3]. Over the last years monoclonal antibodies (mepolizumab, reslizumab, benralizumab) interfering directly with the interleukin 5 (IL-5) or interleukin 5 receptor alpha (IL-5Rα) have been approved for use in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA). Treatment with these antibodies is highly clinically effective and inherent part of GINA guidelines for treatment of bronchial asthma [3], but leads to high treatment costs. Antibody treatment can lead to improvement of lung function, reduction of exacerbations and reduction of OCS intake but only little information concerning the impact on lost work days or loss in productivity exists.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflicts of interest: N. Drick reports speaker fees for AstraZeneca. H. Suhling reports speaker fees for AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis. J. Fuge reports speaker fees for AstraZeneca. T. Welte reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, GSK and Sanofi Aventis and his institution has received research grants from the German Ministry of Research and Education. L Brinkmann has no relevant conflicts of interest. ER -