Jab gives hope to asthma sufferers

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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) gave the go-ahead to omalizumab (Xolair) to treat severe persistent allergic asthma.

The jab has been hailed as a breakthrough in stopping the body reacting severely to pollen, skin particles produced by cats and house-dust mite droppings.

Nice approved the jab for adults and youngsters aged 12 and over who have "severe unstable disease".

A total of 5.2 million people in the UK suffer from asthma and an average of four people a day die from it.

The charity Asthma UK estimated that around 6,000 people across the UK could potentially benefit from the new treatment.

Most (around 90%) of people with asthma should be able to control their symptoms with the right levels of existing medication.

But those with severe allergic asthma can have a poor quality of life and continuous symptoms.

Nice only approved the drug for patients who have had either two or more severe asthma attacks requiring hospital admission in the previous year, or three or more severe asthma attacks in the previous year of which one required hospitalisation and a further two which required extra treatment on top of usual medication.

Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive of Nice, said: "Severe persistent asthma greatly restricts the quality of life of the individual and can result in limited physical activity, continuous daytime symptoms and frequent symptoms at night. The approval of omalizumab improves the options available to the minority of people with asthma who are classified as having this more severe form and sets clear standards for the NHS in England and Wales on how it should be used."