TOPLINE:

Depemokimab substantially reduced asthma exacerbations and improved respiratory quality of life and asthma control scores in patients with type 2 asthma and comorbid chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) compared with placebo.

METHODOLOGY:

• Depemokimab, an interleukin (IL)-5 antagonist monoclonal antibody, is approved as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe asthma.
• To examine the efficacy of twice-yearly dosing of the medication in patients with type 2 asthma, with or without past or current CRSwNP, researchers conducted a pooled analysis of two phase 3 trials.
• The 52-week study included 762 patients (mean age, 53.3 years; 61% women). The patients received standard care and were randomly assigned to receive either a 100-mg dose of depemokimab or placebo subcutaneously every 26 weeks.
• Of 762 patients, 113 (14.8%) were included in the asthma with CRSwNP subgroup, with 80 patients (70.8%) randomly assigned to receive depemokimab and 33 patients (29.2%) randomly assigned to receive placebo.

TAKEAWAY:

• At week 52, patients treated with depemokimab had significantly lower annualized exacerbation rates than those given placebo: 0.51 vs 1.61 in patients with asthma and 0.51 vs 1.03 in patients with both asthma and CRSwNP.
• In the asthma with CRSwNP subgroup, respiratory quality of life and asthma control also improved and sustained through 52 weeks in patients who received depemokimab.

IN PRACTICE:

“While depemokimab provides clinical benefit across a broad asthma population, [the study] findings suggest that patients with a higher type 2 inflammatory burden, such as those with comorbid CRSwNP, may experience enhanced treatment efficacy,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

Enrico Heffler, MD, PhD, with Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele, Italy, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on March 6, 2026, in Frontiers in Allergy.

LIMITATIONS:

The analysis included a relatively small subgroup with comorbid CRSwNP (15% of the pooled population). CRSwNP status was self‑reported at enrollment without endoscopic confirmation, and only a single upper airway outcome (SNOT‑22) was assessed, limiting the objective assessment of nasal polyp burden and generalizability to broader CRSwNP populations. Additionally, overlapping confidence intervals between subgroups and the smaller sample sizes meant that subgroup differences should be interpreted cautiously.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was sponsored by GSK. Four authors reported being employees of the funding company. Some authors reported receiving research support, grants, and/or fees for speaking, consulting, or serving on advisory boards from various pharmaceutical companies, and one author reported being an editorial board member of Frontiers in Allergy.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.