NICE recommends Novartis' Xolair

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the UK advisory body which recommends drugs in England and Wales under the National Health Service, has published final Guidance recommending Novartis' Xolair (omalizumab) for adolescents (12 years of age and over) and adults with severe, persistent allergic asthma. The agent is the first anti-immunoglobulin E medication available to such high-risk patients and has been clinically proven to reduce the severe exacerbations associated with the condition and improve quality of life, Novartis noted. The NICE recommends Xolair as add-on therapy for patients who have clinically-confirmed severe, persistent, unstable IgE-mediated asthma. Specifically, they should have experienced either two or more severe exacerbations of asthma requiring hospital admission within the previous year, or three or more severe exacerbations within the previous year, at least one of which required admission to hospital, and a further two which required treatment or monitoring in excess of the patient's usual regimen, in an accident and emergency unit.