Table 1.

Costs and treatment duration

ERS/ATS 2014 guideline recommendation1	Asthma treatment	Costs in Italy	Costs in USA	Treatment interval/duration
Patients with severe uncontrolled allergic asthma: serum total IgE levels ≥30 to ≤1500 IU/mL	Omalizumab	€15.150 average cost per patient per year2,a	$14.400–$28.800 per patient per year3,a	Every 2 or 4 weeks/lifetime
Positive skin prick test or specific serum IgE for perennial allergens
Patients with hypereosinophilic severe uncontrolled asthma: blood eosinophil levels >300 cells/µL	Mepolizumab	€13.033 per patient per year4	$10.000–$15.000 per patient per year5	Every 4 weeks/lifetime
Patients with severe uncontrolled asthma: not eligible or unresponsive to biodrugs§	Bronchial thermoplasty	€6.550 per patient per year per procedure (total cost €19.650)2,a Alair system (€ 35.000)	$7.500 per three Alair catheters in addition of purchase of the Alair system ($60.000)6	Three procedures performed at 20/day intervals
Patients with hypereosinophilic severe uncontrolled asthma: blood eosinophil levels >400 cells/µL	Reslizumab	Not yet available	Not yet available	Every 4 weeks/lifetime

Notes:

^a1-year cost of omalizumab treatement including €3745 per average daily dose.

^§Bronchial thermoplasty is performed every 3 weeks for 3 months.

Abbreviation: ERS/ATS, European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society