Omalizumab recently received FDA approval for the treatment of moderate to severe persistent allergic asthma in pediatric (12 years of age and above) and adult patients. The addition of omalizumab to standard asthma therapies has been found to reduce asthma exacerbations and decrease both inhaled corticosteroid dose and rescue medication use. (Busse, 2001). In a phase III double blinded placebo controlled trial involving 525 severe allergic asthmatics, omalizumab treated patients had fewer exacerbations during both a steroid stable phase and steroid reduction phase than did placebo controls (Busse, 2001). The median reduction in steroid dose during reduction phase was 75% and 50% in the omalizumab and placebo groups respectively. In a similarly designed steroid reduction study involving 6 to 12 year-old moderate to severe allergic asthmatics, steroid reduction was possible in 100% of treated patient verses 66.7% of placebo treated patients (Milgrom, 2001). Other steroid reduction studies have had similar results (Buhl 2002, Soler 2001). Omalizumab has also been shown to improve quality of life in allergic asthmatics as measured by the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ). In adults, AQLQ demonstrated greater improvement at 16, 28 and 52 weeks in omalizumab treated patients than in placebo treated (Finn 2003). Similarly in pediatric populations, AQLQ improvement reached statistical significance in omalizumab treated patients (Lemanske 2002).