# Synthesizing Trial and Real-world Data on the Use of Biologics in Patients with Severe Asthma

> **NIH NIH K99** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $97,272

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
African-Americans and Hispanics of Puerto-Rican origin bear a disproportionate burden of asthma morbidity
and mortality, despite decades of attention to asthma disparities. The advent of biologic therapies offers a
promising route to narrow these disparities. However, despite the well documented disparities in asthma
treatment and outcomes, little is known about the use of biologics in these minority groups. Furthermore, ethnic
minorities have been grossly underrepresented in trials that form the evidence base of the efficacy of these
drugs. The goal of this Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00 MOSAIC) is to
expedite the candidate's transition to an independent investigator who possesses unique expertise in the use
of mixed methods in pharmacoepidemiology and disparities research. Through the application of rigorous
qualitative methods and sophisticated non-experimental designs, the candidate will determine patients’
attitudes and beliefs about biologics and providers motivators for prescribing, and evaluate how these influence
real-world utilization patterns and effectiveness of biologics, with focus on treatment effect heterogeneity by
race/ethnicity. In the K99 phase of this award, the candidate will obtain focused training needed to accomplish
these goals. In the R00 phase, the candidate will conduct a prospective cohort of patients with severe asthma
and assess how time-varying patient factors and provider factors influence biologic initiation, adherence, and
discontinuation. The aims are to 1) Describe biologic use and identify differences in use across racial/ethnic
groups, 2) Compare the real-world effectiveness of these biologics on asthma-related outcomes; and
determine effect modification by race/ethnicity, and 3) Identify patient- and provider factors that influence
biologic use and adherence over time. Findings from this R00 study will form the basis for further research
such as using mediation and decomposition analysis to partition any identified differences in biologic use or
patient outcomes to the various sources of bias. This will be helpful as we identify interventions which are likely
to be effective in eliminating disparities related to biologics use. These activities will also establish the
candidate's portfolio for applying mixed methods to generate evidence on interventions to reduce disparities in
minority patients with severe asthma.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10104979
- **Project number:** 1K99MD015767-01
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ayobami T Akenroye
- **Activity code:** K99 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $97,272
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-12-26 → 2021-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10104979

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10104979, Synthesizing Trial and Real-world Data on the Use of Biologics in Patients with Severe Asthma (1K99MD015767-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10104979. Licensed CC0.

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