Effects of cKit Inhibition by Imatinib in Patients With Severe Refractory Asthma (KIA)

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients 18-65 years of age, diagnosed with asthma for at least 1 year;
• Refractory asthma, defined as reporting that their asthma has not been completely controlled in the past 3 months despite continuous treatment with high-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and an additional controller medication, with or without continuous oral corticosteroids (OCS)

Exclusion Criteria

• Current smoking or smoking history of greater than 10 pack-years
• Any other significant respiratory or cardiac disease, or the presence of clinically important comorbidities, including uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled coronary artery disease
• If subject cannot undergo bronchoscopy procedure due to safety reasons
• Previous treatment with Imatinib
• A history of acute heart failure or chronic left sided heart failure
• Uncontrolled systemic arterial hypertension
• History of major bleeding or intracranial hemorrhage
• History of immunodeficiency diseases, including HIV
• Use of other investigational drugs at the time of enrollment, or within 30 days or 5 half-lives of enrollment, whichever is longer
• History of malignancy of any organ system (other than localized basal cell carcinoma of the skin), treated or untreated, within the past 5 years, regardless of whether there is evidence of local recurrence or metastases.
• Diagnosis of Hepatitis B or C.
• History of alcohol abuse within 6 months of screening.
• History of illicit drug abuse within 6 months of screening.
• Regular use of anticoagulants (eg: Warfarin Sodium, Coumadin), amiodarone, carbamazepine, Cyclosporine, Rifampicin, or reverse transcriptase inhibitors