Treatment with tezepelumab (Tezspire) can substantially reduce or eliminate oral corticosteroid (OCS) use in adults with OCS-dependent severe asthma, according to new Phase 3 WAYFINDER results presented at ATS 2025.
Steroid dependency is common and a major concern for people with severe asthma, as prolonged OCS use leads to adverse effects such as bone, cardiovascular, metabolic, gastrointestinal and psychiatric disorders as well as adrenal insufficiency.
In the WAYFINDER study (abstract #A5231), treatment with tezepelumab over 52 weeks showed:
- Most patients in this broad severe asthma patient population treated with tezepelumab achieved clinically meaningful reductions in maintenance OCS dose or completely discontinued OCS use, while maintaining asthma control.
- Nearly all (90%) of patients achieved a mOCS dose of ≤ 5 mg/day and 50% completely discontinued OCS use
- OCS discontinuation without loss of asthma control was achieved across patient subgroups
- Two-thirds of patients remained exacerbation-free despite OCS dose reductions over 52 weeks of tezepelumab treatment
- Patients saw a significant improvement in quality of life, as measured by ACQ-6 scores
These data further differentiate tezepelumab’s position in the treatment of severe asthma, where it’s the only biologic approved for a broad population of patients with no phenotypic or biomarker limitation.
These latest findings also indicate that targeting the epithelium—the gateway to chronic respiratory inflammation—has potential to be the new standard of care.
