(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca and Amgen Inc’s drug, Tezspire, to treat severe asthma for those aged 12 years and older, the companies said on Friday.
The approval is based on late-stage trial data that showed the drug cut the rate of asthma attacks by 56% among patients when compared to placebo, which had roughly 1,000 patients who were already receiving standard care.
Tezspire works by blocking a type of immune protein called TSLP, found in the linings of the lungs. TSLP belongs to the cytokine group responsible for sounding an alarm to the body’s immune system and can also trigger inflammation.
There are about a million people with severe asthma in the United States, according to Amgen.
AstraZeneca is involved in the development of the drug, while Amgen leads its manufacturing.
(Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
