Real-world treatment patterns and outcomes of omalizumab use in patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria

To examine treatment patterns, treatment response, and demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) newly initiated on omalizumab therapy in real-world practice in the US.This retrospective observational cohort study used US claims data from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database (HIRD®) augmented with medical record data to identify CIU patients newly-treated with omalizumab (≥4 omalizumab claims within 6 months of initial claim; index date = first omalizumab claim date) between March 21, 2014 and October 31, 2015 and with ≥6 months pre- and ≥12 months post-index health plan eligibility. Study outcomes were captured from medical records for up to 12 months pre-index and up to 24 months post-index. Descriptive statistics were reported.This study consisted of 88 patients with a mean (SD) age of 43.4 (± 13.46) years, 68.2% were female, and 36 patients had ≥18 months post-index eligibility. Among 69 patients with documented index dose, 75.4% received omalizumab 300 mg and 69.6% remained on index dose throughout follow-up. For 52 patients with documented index dosing frequency, 96.2% had every 4-week dosing frequency. Among 86 patients with omalizumab documentation, 83.7% reported CIU improvement after omalizumab initiation and 24.4% discontinued omalizumab. For all patients, the proportion using oral corticosteroids (OCS) decreased pre- to post-index (52.3% vs 39.8%). Similar results were observed for patients with ≥18 months post-index eligibility.In this real-world analysis, the majority of patients remained on omalizumab for ≥12 months, and had a positive response. OCS use decreased following omalizumab initiation.