Risk of Death for Users of Four Asthma Drugs

Two federal drug officials have issued a warning that people suffering from asthma face a risk of death if they continue to use 4 popular asthma drugs--Advair, Foradil, Symbicort and Serevent. The officials said in their warning that no asthma sufferers should use those 4 drugs; however, a third official said that while no one under the age of 17 should use the 4 asthma medications, adults could use Advair and Symbicort.

Not everyone at the FDA agrees with the assessment, so the agency has called for a committee of experts to meet and come up with a solution to the disagreement. A spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline said that the warnings about a risk of death were not supported by the drug maker's own data. However, a GlaxoSmithKline study, released in 2003, showed that patients given Serevent were more likely to die than patients given a placebo. GlaxoSmithKline sells both Advair and Serevent.

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Published on Dec-8-08