Antibody therapy for extreme eczema

I just wrote a short post on the NEA website about the use of omalizumab, an anti-IgE antibody, as an experimental therapy for patients with refractory (hard-to-treat) eczema. Omalizumab is currently approved in the US for treating extreme asthma--it knocks IgE levels down and thereby reduces the immune system's tendency to flare up. It appears to work for around 20% of eczema patients, but the current evidence is pretty slim so I'd wait a few years before calling it a real therapy.