• Philippe Devillier, Ulrich Wahn, Stefan Zielen, and Joachim Heinrich.
• a UPRES EA 220, Hospital Foch , University Versailles Saint Quentin , Suresnes , France.
• Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2017 Dec 1; 13 (12): 1199-1206.

BackgroundWe assessed real-world, long-term effectiveness of two marketed sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) tablets for allergic rhinitis (AR), and their impact on allergic asthma (AA) onset/progression.MethodsRetrospective, longitudinal German prescription database subanalysis of AR patients receiving 5- or 1-grass pollen SLIT tablets (n = 1,466/1,385), versus patients not using allergy immunotherapy (AIT) (n = 71,275). Primary endpoint: change over time in AR symptomatic medication prescriptions after treatment cessation; secondary endpoints: new asthma onset, and change over time in asthma medication prescriptions during treatment/follow-up periods.ResultsMean number of AR medication prescriptions was significantly decreased during follow-up (of up to 6 years) with both SLIT tablets versus the non-AIT group (p < 0.001). Over the full-analysis period, proportions of patients with new-onset asthma were 8.8% (odds ratio: 0.676, p = 0.011), 10.3% (odds ratio: 0.720, p = 0.060) and 11.6% in the 5- and 1-grass pollen SLIT tablet and non-AIT groups, respectively. For all treatment-analysis periods, both SLIT tablet groups were associated with fewer asthma medication prescriptions versus non-AIT controls.ConclusionsThese findings confirm the real-world benefits of 5- and 1-grass-pollen SLIT tablets in slower AR progression, reduced risk of new asthma onset in the non-asthmatic population, and slower asthma progression in the asthmatic population.

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