Introduction: Severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) is an asthma subtype defined by chronic airway inflammation with episodes of acute exacerbations despite high doses of inhaled beta-agonists and glucocorticoids (ICS). Benralizumab is a humanized recombinant monoclonal antibody that specifically binds to the alpha chain of the interleukin 5 receptor (IL-5R) expressed on eosinophils and basophils.

Material: and Methods: We followed 21 patients with SEA and monoclonal antibody therapy during the pandemic, 10 women and 11 men, with a mean age of 62 years. All patients started therapy with benralizumab 30 mg (30 mg injection every 4 weeks for the first 3 doses, then every 8 weeks) before the covid pandemic. We aimed to monitor the patients' blood eosinophil count, changes in their lung capacity, and quality of life during the pandemic.

Results: All patients experienced a significant decrease in blood eosinophils after the first treatment with benralizumab 30 mg (p=0.001), which persisted during the pandemic. We observed a significant increase in the Tiffeneau-Pinelli index (TI) (p=0.002) and forced vital capacity (FVC) (p < 0.001) from the start of therapy. Quality of life, as measured by the asthma control score ACT, had significantly increased since the first dose of benralizumab (p < 0.001), with no changes during the pandemic. None of the patients discontinued their therapy during the pandemic.

Conclusion: The pandemic had no impact on the benefit of monoclonal antibody therapy in patients with SEA. We were unable to diagnose new SEA patients during the pandemic, and we were not able to enroll new patients in our study due to the pandemic.