Sold as Nucala.
First FDA approval 11/04/2015: 11 years on the US market.
This grade answers one narrow question: how strong is the public evidence and safety record behind this drug, and how clean is its money trail and court record? It is not a verdict on whether the drug is right for you.
B
Score breakdown (81/100)
Safety ×35%
A
Evidence ×25%
C
Regulatory ×15%
A
Money & lawsuits ×15%
C
Options ×10%
F
Safety: 100
Death share in reports is near or below the FAERS average (0.9x)
Evidence: 65
79 randomized trials and 28 systematic reviews/meta-analyses indexed in PubMed
1 independent Cochrane review(s) exist
Regulatory history: 100
No recalls on record since 2016
Money & lawsuits: 70
Pharma paid doctors $3,882,730 tied to this drug last year (-30)
Not named in any pending federal MDL
Options: 40
No generic version approved: brand-only pricing (-30)
No same-class alternatives found: little leverage to switch (-30)
What the FDA label says
Approved uses
Not available.
Contraindications
None listed.
Warnings and precautions
Not available.
Adverse reactions (label)
Not available.
Source: FDA SPL label, effective .
Side-effect reports sent to the FDA
These are counts of reports people filed, not rates of harm. Anyone can file one, and nobody checks whether the drug was the cause. Millions of doses are taken for every report sent, so the useful part is how this drug compares with the average across all drugs.
49,423reports that mention this drug
49,417of those blame this drug, not another one the person was taking
63%of reports describe a serious outcome, such as a hospital stay (average for all drugs: 57%)
8.1%of reports include a death, from any cause (average for all drugs: 9.1%)
Problems reported most often
Asthma · 12,771Dyspnoea · 10,579Wheezing · 7,132Product Dose Omission Issue · 6,636Cough · 5,100Therapeutic Product Effect Incomplete · 5,052Pneumonia · 4,645Drug Ineffective · 4,624Loss Of Personal Independence In Daily Activities · 4,242Sleep Disorder Due To A General Medical Condition · 3,118Fatigue · 3,078Off Label Use · 3,077Malaise · 2,776Condition Aggravated · 2,745Headache · 2,697
Reports per year
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
4,618
5,679
6,096
4,726
5,643
7,763
7,633
2,085
Source: the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Reports are voluntary and unverified. Drugs that are prescribed a lot, in the news, or in lawsuits attract more reports, so the percentages are compared with the whole database to correct for that partly, not fully.
Counts measure how much evidence exists and how transparent it is, not how big the benefit is. For that, ask your prescriber: if 100 people like me took this, how many would get better because of it, and how many would be harmed? (Doctors call these the "number needed to treat" and "number needed to harm.") It differs by condition and is the number drug ads leave out. Sources: PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Money and lawsuits
In 2024, drug companies reported $3,882,730 in payments to US physicians and hospitals tied to this drug across 56,910 transactions (Nucala $3,882,730).
No pending federal MDL names this drug or its brands.
Not named in any federal pharmaceutical settlement of $100M or more on record.
Sources: CMS Open Payments (Sunshine Act); Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation pending docket list; DOJ settlements as tabulated on Wikipedia with links to the primary record. State-court and individual suits are not included.
Who takes it and what it costs
9,062Medicare Part D patients (2024)
72,258prescriptions filled
$4,400average cost per fill
$318Mtotal Medicare spend
Same-class alternatives
No same-class alternatives found in RxClass.
Questions to ask your prescriber
The most-reported problems in FDA's adverse event data are asthma, dyspnoea, wheezing, product dose omission issue. How would we recognize and handle those?
There is no generic. Is there an older generic in the same class that works as well for my situation?
The manufacturer pays physicians heavily to promote this drug. Have you received anything from them?
What result are we expecting, by when, and what is the plan if it does not happen?
If 100 people like me took this drug, how many would actually get better because of it, and how many would be harmed by it? (Doctors call these the number needed to treat and the number needed to harm.)