Table 1. Major findings from the main clinical trials evaluating anti-interleukin (IL)-5 antibodies in asthma

First author [ref.]	Drug	Subjects n	Primary end-point	Duration	Main findings
Leckie [13]	Mepolizumab	24	Histamine AHR	Single dose	Decreased blood eosinophils up to 16 weeks, no significant effect on AHR
Büttner [4]	Mepolizumab	19	Eosinophil population and ECP levels	12 weeks	Decreased eosinophils and serum ECP
Flood-Page [35]	Mepoliumab	24	Airway eosinophils and clinical parameters of disease activity	8 weeks	Decreased airway eosinophils, no change in clinical parameter
Flood-Page [36]	Mepolizumab	362	Clinical parameters	12 weeks	No change in clinical end-points Trend for a reduction in exacerbation rate
Haldar [37]	Mepolizumab	61	Exacerbations	12 months	Significant reduction in severe exacerbations and improvement of the AQLQ score
Nair [38]	Mepolizumab	20	Exacerbations and prednisone sparing effect	5 months	Reduction of oral steroid daily dose without exacerbations
Pavord [39]	Mepolizumab	621	Exacerbations	12 months	Significant decrease of the exacerbation rates
Kips [40]	Reslizumab	26	Symptoms	Single dose	No modification of symptoms
Castro [41]	Reslizumab	106	ACQ score	12 weeks	No change in ACQ score, pulmonary function tests or clinical parameters Significant decrease of sputum eosinophilia
Busse [42]	Benralizumab	44	Safety in an open-labelled study	Single dose	No serious adverse events

AHR: airway hyperresponsiveness; ECP: eosinophil cationic protein; ACQ: asthma control questionnaire; AQLQ: Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire.