Use of biologics in chronic spontaneous urticaria – beyond omalizumab therapy?

In chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), itchy wheals, angioedema, or both occur regularly, often daily, and for years. An effective therapy for CSU aims at achieving complete symptom control. The current guideline for the management of CSU patients recommends non-sedative anthistamines in standard or up to 4-fold higher dosages as 1 and 2 line treatment. For most CSU patients this treatment is not sufficient; for them, the anti-IgE antibody omalizumab is the therapy of choice. Although good to very good symptom control can be achieved in most cases, there are many patients with insufficient response. For these patients, but also as an alternative to therapy with omalizumab, numerous other biologicals are currently under development. In this review, we provide an overview of possible future biologic therapies for chronic urticaria.