
    recruitment problems
  
['asthma']
['mepolizumab', 'placebo']

        Inclusion Criteria:

          1. Patients must be able to give written informed consent prior to participation in the
             study, which will include the ability to comply with the requirements and restrictions
             listed in the consent form.

          2. Male or female patients at least 18 years

          3. Physician-diagnosis of asthma and evidence of asthma as documented by either
             reversibility of airflow obstruction (FEV1 ≥ 12% or 200 ml) demonstrated at visit 1 or
             visit 2 .

          4. ICS dose must be ≥ 1000 μg/day BDP or equivalent daily with or without maintenance
             oral corticosteroids.

          5. Treatment in the past 12 months with an additional controller medication for at least
             3 successive months, e.g., long-acting beta-2-agonist (LABA), leukotriene receptor
             antagonist (LTRA), or theophylline.

          6. Persistent airflow obstruction as indicated by a pre-bronchodilator FEV1 < 80%
             predicted recorded at Visit 1 or < 90% for patients on oral corticosteroids.

          7. An elevated peripheral blood eosinophil level of ≥ 300/µL that is related to asthma or
             ≥ 150/µL in patients treated with oral corticosteroids as maintenance therapy
             demonstrated at visit 1 or in the previous 12 months

          8. Confirmed history of two or more exacerbations requiring treatment with systemic
             corticosteroids (intramuscular, intravenous, or oral), in the 12 months prior to visit
             1, despite the use of high-dose inhaled corticosteroids. For patients receiving
             maintenance corticosteroids, the corticosteroid treatment for the exacerbations must
             have been a two-fold increase or greater in the dose.

        Exclusion Criteria:

          1. Current smokers or former smokers with a smoking history of ≥ 10 pack years (number of
             pack years = (number of cigarettes per day / 20) x number of years smoked). Patients
             who have not smoked for ≥ 6 months before visit 1 and have < 10 pack years can be
             included into the study.

          2. Presence of a clinically important lung condition other than asthma. This includes
             current infection, bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis,
             or diagnoses of emphysema or chronic bronchitis (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
             other than asthma) or a history of lung cancer.

          3. Patients who have received omalizumab [Xolair] within 130 days of Visit 1.

          4. Patients who have received any biological to treat inflammatory disease within 5
             half-lives of visit 1
      