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    Tezepelumab for treating severe asthma

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    Other factors

    There may be additional benefits of tezepelumab not captured but this is uncertain

    3.19 The company considered tezepelumab to be innovative because of its mechanism of action, making it suitable for the broader severe asthma subtype population. The clinical experts noted that tezepelumab has the potential to be used for various severe asthma subtypes. They noted that if tezepelumab was approved, people would have another treatment option if their asthma does not respond to current standard care. The patient experts also noted that tezepelumab may improve treatment adherence for people who may find it more difficult to adhere to standard care, for example, people with mental health issues. The committee recalled the patient expert comments on biological treatments also improving people's quality of life (see section 3.6), because they can provide stability. This allows people to be able to plan more and have more control of their lives. But the committee also noted the uncertainties in the clinical evidence and in the model. It concluded that tezepelumab may have additional benefits that have not been captured in the cost-effectiveness analysis, but these are difficult to untangle because of the uncertainties in the evidence and around some of the company's model assumptions. .

    Equality issues

    3.20 The committee noted that severe asthma and its subtypes disproportionately affect women, with about 60% of people with severe asthma being women. The committee considered whether this was partly because of the potential effect of hormone levels on immunity and consequently asthma. The clinical experts explained that this is not fully understood because of a lack of evidence. However, it is known that hormonal stress can affect immunity and as such people's health. They also noted that there is no evidence that suggests that biological treatments affect people differently based on sex. The committee took those into consideration and noted that if tezepelumab were recommended, the recommendation would not restrict access for some people over others. No other equality or social value judgement issues were identified.