BOSTON -- There may soon be a new way to treat asthma.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended approval Thursday for a drug called Xolair.
About 60 percent of people with asthma have it triggered by allergies, and it's this allergic asthma that Xolair is intended to treat. The drug is given by injection every couple of weeks.
The drug can do something no other asthma drug can -- it blocks the production of an enzyme called IgE, the enzyme that causes allergies.
"All the drugs we had in the past treats what happens afterwards, in terms of the asthma. This gets at what appears to be one of the root causes of asthma," said Dr. Elliot Israel, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Xolair is the first of this new class of drug to finish clinical trials -- and with good results. Researchers reported 58 percent fewer asthma attacks in those who used the drug, and patients were able to cut down on other asthma medicines, including steroids.
There also are few side effects. Studies showed the most common were headache and sinus infection.
But the drug is expensive. Experts said that it probably will cost about $10,000 per year. Insurance companies aren't likely to cover it unless the patient has severe asthma that's not controlled by other medications.
Rogers Rieves' mother died of an asthma attack when he was just 11 years old. Now, he battles the disease with a number of drugs.
"Inhalers, the pills and at one point, nothing was really working," Rieves said.
He'll be a candidate for Xolair. Researchers said that so may many more people, including children, once it hits the market.
"I suspect in the long run we're going to be using it in many, many patients, even those with mild asthma, after we get the cost down," Israel said.
If the cost does come down, it would be a potential solution for anyone with any kind of severe allergy -- including food allergies. Studies are under way specifically for those who are allergic to peanuts, and so far, the results are promising.
The final decision on whether to allow sale of the drug still must come from the FDA. The agency is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees, but most often does so.
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