Love Your Lungs Week is an annual campaign dedicated to raising awareness about lung health and supporting those with respiratory conditions, including severe asthma. Beginning 23 June 2025, the initiative encourages individuals to prioritise their lung health through education, fundraising, and community engagement (1).

For people living with severe asthma, this week serves as a vital reminder of the importance of proactive management and access to innovative treatments like biologics. With lung conditions being one of the leading health concerns in the UK, Love Your Lungs Week highlights the need for better resources, research, and support for those struggling to breathe freely.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how biologics are redefining severe asthma treatment, their benefits, and the promising future they offer to patients who struggle with conventional therapies. The shift towards targeted medicine is revolutionising asthma care, providing hope for improved outcomes and a better quality of life.

Biologics: A New Era in Severe Asthma Treatment

Severe asthma is a challenging condition that affects millions worldwide, often remaining uncontrolled despite traditional treatments like inhaled and systemic corticosteroids (6). Managing symptoms can feel like an uphill battle, with frequent exacerbations and increased healthcare needs, impacting patients quality of life (2,3). Fortunately, the development of biologic therapies is transforming asthma management by targeting the underlying inflammatory mechanisms responsible for severe asthma and offering new hope for severe asthma patients (4,5).

Unlike mild or moderate asthma, severe asthma is often driven by specific immune system disfunctions (6,7). Biologics are advanced medicines derived from living cells, engineered to modulate immune response (8). Unlike traditional asthma treatments, which broadly suppress inflammation, biologics work to disrupt the specific immune pathways involved in asthma-related inflammation (9). Current biologics authorised for treatment in the United Kingdom NHS are omalizumab, mepolizumab, reslizumab, benralizumab, and dupilumab; these drugs are administered via injections or infusions at varying intervals, ranging from every two weeks to several months (8,10). By addressing eosinophilic and IgE-mediated responses, these therapies offer a more precise and effective approach to managing the disease and are particularly beneficial to patients with severe asthma that doesn’t respond well to standard treatments (2).

Benefits of Biologics: Beyond Symptom Relief

While not all asthma patients require biologics, for those who do, these treatments can be life changing. Biologics can help reduce the occurrence of exacerbations (‘asthma attacks’) and help improve lung function – which can make breathing easier (5,11,12). Traditional asthma treatments also includes the use of oral steroids. Long-term steroid use has been associated with numerous side effects, such as osteoporosis and diabetes (13). The use of biologics for severe asthma can help reduce or eliminate the need for regular steroid treatment and therefore reduce corticosteroid-related comorbidities (11). Overall, with fewer symptoms and improved lung function, severe asthma patients being treated with biologics often experience an enhanced quality of life (10). Instead of focusing solely on symptom relief, biologics aim to achieve long-term disease control—and potentially remission (14,15).

Real-World Evidence in the UK: Can Biologics Lead to Remission?

A recent retrospective real-world study of over 1,000 patients in the UK using the UK Severe Asthma registry evaluated patients with severe asthma receiving biologics and explored their likelihood of achieving remission. The study found that 18.3% of patients met the criteria for clinical remission after 12 months of biologic use—defined by no oral corticosteroid use and well-controlled symptoms, as well as assessment of lung function (16).

Remission was found to be more likely in patients with shorter disease duration and less comorbidity, as well as patients with a specific type of asthma called type 2-high asthma. Lower chances of achieving remission were found for female patients, obese patients and those who reported worse symptom control prior to biologic initiation based on the Asthma Control Questionnaire (16). These insights provide valuable guidance in determining which patients may benefit most from biologic therapy and will help guide future research into the impact of biologics for severe asthma patients.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Asthma Care

The study highlights the broader implications of biologic treatments for severe asthma, demonstrating their potential to shift the treatment paradigm beyond symptom management toward disease remission. However, comparing remission rates across different studies remains complex due to the varied definitions used (4,16,17). This research contributed to refining real-world definitions of remission and emphasised the importance of considering multiple factors—including comorbidities and prior asthma control—when predicting biologic treatment success.

Severe asthma treatment continues to evolve, and biologics represent a significant step forward. While challenges remain, this study reinforces the promising role of precision medicine in delivering better outcomes for patients. As research expands, biologics may play an even greater role in redefining asthma care.

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13. Sweeney J, Patterson CC, Menzies-Gow A, Niven RM, Mansur AH, Bucknall C, et al. Comorbidity in severe asthma requiring systemic corticosteroid therapy: cross-sectional data from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database and the British Thoracic Difficult Asthma Registry. Thorax. 2016 Apr 1;71(4):339–46.

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15. Menzies-Gow A, Bafadhel M, Busse WW, Casale TB, Kocks JWH, Pavord ID, et al. An expert consensus framework for asthma remission as a treatment goal. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 Mar;145(3):757–65.

16. McDowell PJ, McDowell R, Busby J, Eastwood MC, Patel PH, Jackson DJ, et al. Clinical remission in severe asthma with Biologic Therapy: an analysis from the UK Severe Asthma Registry. European Respiratory Journal [Internet]. 2023 Jan 1 [cited 2023 Oct 25]; Available from: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2023/10/12/13993003.00819-2023

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