Allergic rhinitis (AR) has been reported to affect between 20% and 40% of the world population. Oralair^® obtained indication for the treatment of grass pollen allergic rhinitis with or without conjunctivitis in adults, adolescents and children (above the age of 5) with clinically relevant symptoms, confirmed by a positive skin test and/or a positive titre of specific grass pollen IgE. The French Health Technology Assessment agency requested to set up a post-authorisation cohort study to describe Oralair^® real-world treatment pattern and patients characteristics.

Patients with an initiation of Oralair^® before pollen season in 2015, were included in a cohort study and followed by allergy specialists to the end of the pollen season.

90 allergy specialists included 280 adults and 203 children, with a mean age of 33.8 years and 11.8 years at inclusion, 49.6% men and 63.5% boys, age of onset of AR=15.2 (±10.2) and 4.0 (±2.9) years, 87.1% and 83.7% with conjunctivitis, 41.4% and 34.3% had asthma, 87.9% and 85.2% of AR classified as persistent during the year before, 98.6% and 92.6% as moderate-severe (ARIA classification). A skin test was performed for all patients. Oralair^® was started 3–5 months before pollen season for 85.1% and continued during pollen season for most patients, with a mean duration of 2.5 months. Treatment was discontinued early (<2 months) in 11.3% of adults and 10.1% of children, generally because of an adverse event (83.7%). At the end of follow-up, AR during pollen season was classified as intermittent for 75.0% of adults and 85.7% of children, and mild severe for 61.8% and 66.0%. The following symptoms reported during the year before were no longer reported during the 2015 pollen season: nasal congestion (52.6% of patients), rhinorrhea (50.1%), repeated sneezing (48.9%), conjunctivitis (48.4%) and nasal pruritus (47.8%).

This study shows that the conditions of Oralair^® prescriptions by allergy specialists followed the indication recommendations well, and were associated with an improvement of AR severity observed for more than 3 patients out of 5, with a resolution of main previous AR symptoms for about half of the patients.