Spiriva Improves Asthma Treatment
Spiriva Improves Asthma Treatment
Study Shows When Inhaler Alone Isn't Enough, Spiriva at Least as Good as Serevent for Asthma
"Careful assessment of [Spiriva] risk in this population of patients will be needed," warns Northwestern University asthma expert Lewis J. Smith, MD, in an editorial accompanying the Peters Sept. 19 online report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim informed the FDA that there might be a higher risk of stroke in patients taking Spiriva. An analysis of clinical trial data suggested this might be true, and in 2008 the FDA sent out a warning that it was investigating the drug's safety. But later that year, a larger study found no increased risk of stroke, heart disease, or death in patients on Spiriva -- and in 2009, an FDA advisory panel accepted this conclusion.
Meanwhile, increasing concern that Serevent and similar drugs cause rare but serious asthma flare-ups has led the FDA to advise patients to use the drugs as little as possible.
Spiriva Improves Asthma Treatment
Study Shows When Inhaler Alone Isn't Enough, Spiriva at Least as Good as Serevent for Asthma
Spiriva for Asthma: Long-Term Safety Untested continued...
"Careful assessment of [Spiriva] risk in this population of patients will be needed," warns Northwestern University asthma expert Lewis J. Smith, MD, in an editorial accompanying the Peters Sept. 19 online report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim informed the FDA that there might be a higher risk of stroke in patients taking Spiriva. An analysis of clinical trial data suggested this might be true, and in 2008 the FDA sent out a warning that it was investigating the drug's safety. But later that year, a larger study found no increased risk of stroke, heart disease, or death in patients on Spiriva -- and in 2009, an FDA advisory panel accepted this conclusion.
Meanwhile, increasing concern that Serevent and similar drugs cause rare but serious asthma flare-ups has led the FDA to advise patients to use the drugs as little as possible.
