BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS IN ALLERGY: PRESCRIPTION AND MANAGEMENT OF
HYPERSENSITIVITY REACTIONS
Abstract
Background: Allergy is witnessing major advances, in particular with the
advent of biological therapies for treating allergic diseases. Given the
novelty of these therapeutics, we aimed to explore by a worldwide
survey, the prescription and the management of hypersensitivity
reactions (HR) of biological agents (BA) in Allergy. Method: We built up
an anonymous online questionnaire, sent out by mail and social media and
circulated for 40 days. Results: 348 responses were from 59 countries,
with a majority from Europe (62.6%). 97% of responders practiced
allergy and 48.5%, exclusively so. Allergy was mentioned as a full
specialty in 69.5 % of cases. 71% of responders confirmed the right of
prescription of BA for allergists in their country and 78.4 %
prescribed BA in their clinical practice. Europe included almost all the
allergists who did not have the right of prescribing BA (95.5%),
specifically France (91%). The most prescribed BA were Anti IgE
(78.1%) and anti IL5 (43.9%). The most declared HR to BA were local
reactions (74.1%) followed by anaphylaxis like symptoms (6.8%) and
delayed exanthemas (5.1%). Desensitization was considered in 18.9% of
cases. These HR were reported in 48.8% of cases. Conclusion: Although
BA are now a pillar in the treatment of allergic diseases and allergists
are familiar with management of HR associated with BA, their
prescription is not authorized for allergists in all countries. BA
showed to be generally safe but HR, which may be severe, could occur
with a lack of consensus on the management.