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Background: Higher asthma burden is more likely to be experienced by Black than White patients. In clinical research, underrepresentation of minority populations is observed., Objective: To estimate response to omalizumab in Black and White patients in North America with moderate to severe asthma., Methods: Data from placebo-controlled (EXTRA) and single-armed (PROSPERO) omalizumab studies were used for this post hoc analysis. We used a Poisson regression model to examine exacerbation rates. An analysis of covariance model was used to estimate placebo-corrected change in FEV 1 and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) by racial group., Results: This analysis included 631 White and 176 Black patients from EXTRA and 567 White and 130 Black patients from PROSPERO. In EXTRA, placebo-corrected exacerbation rate reductions (relative rate change [95% confidence interval], 22.6% [2.0-38.9%] vs 22.0% [-18.0% to 48.4%]) and FEV 1 improvements were similar for White and Black patients. There was a trend toward greater AQLQ improvements for Black versus White patients (least squares mean treatment differences: 0.0 vs 0.3, 0.6 vs 0.4, and 0.6 vs 0.2 at weeks 16, 32, and 48, respectively) throughout the study. In PROSPERO, on-study exacerbation rates (0.76 [0.65-0.88] vs 0.77 [0.56-1.10]) and AQLQ improvements (least squares mean change from baseline: 1.2 vs 1.2 and 1.3 vs 1.2 at month 6 and end of study, respectively) were similar for White versus Black patients. A trend toward greater FEV 1 improvement was observed in White versus Black patients throughout the study., Conclusions: This analysis of EXTRA and PROSPERO suggests that Black and White patients with moderate to severe asthma experience similar improvements in exacerbations, FEV 1 , and AQLQ with omalizumab., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Anosmia and ageusia are symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19, but the relationship with disease severity, onset and recovery are unclear., Objective: To examine factors associated with anosmia and ageusia and the recovery from these symptoms in an ethnically diverse cohort., Methods: Individuals tested for SARS-CoV-2 between March and April 2020 were eligible for the study. Randomly selected participants answered a telephone questionnaire on COVID-19 symptoms with a focus on anosmia and ageusia. Additionally, relevant past medical history and data on the COVID-19 clinical course were obtained from electronic medical records. 486 patients were in the COVID-19 group and 103 were COVID-19-negative., Results: Patients who were younger were more likely to report anosmia and/or ageusia (odds ratio (OR) for anosmia per 1-year increase in age: 0·98, 95%CI:0-97-0·99, p  = 0·003; for ageusia: 0·98, 95%CI:0·97-0·99, p  = 0·005) as were patients with lower eosinophil counts (OR for anosmia per 0.1-K/μL increase in eosinophils: 0·02, 95%CI:0·001-0·46, p  = 0·01, for ageusia 0·10, 95%CI:0·01-0·97, p  = 0·047). Male gender was independently associated with a lower probability of ageusia (OR:0·56, 95%CI:0·38-0·82, p  = 0·003) and earlier sense of taste recovery (HR:1·44, 95%CI:1·05-1·98, p  = 0·02). Latinos showed earlier sense of taste recovery than white patients (HR:1·82, 95%CI:1·05-3·18, p  = 0·03)., Conclusion: Anosmia and ageusia were more common among younger patients and those with lower blood eosinophil counts. Ageusia was less commonly reported among men, and time to taste recovery was earlier among both men and Latinos.

Competing Interests: G.H. is on the advisory board for AstraZeneca and is a principal investigator at Genentech, Merck, and AstraZeneca. E.J. has a research grant from Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and served on the advisory board for Sanofi/Regeneron, GSK, and Genentech/Novartis. In the previous 12 months, E.J. has served as a committee member on the National Board of Medical Education and the US Medical Licensing Examination Committee. The other authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to declare.