FDA panel weighs withdrawing asthma drugs

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee made up of 14 lung specialists meets today to decide if three popular asthma medicines are safe enough to remain on the market. The drugs under consideration are Advair and Serevent, both made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Foradil, made by Novartis but marketed in the US by Schering Plough. All three have been linked to "severe asthma exacerbations" in a small number of patients. The manufacturers involved are expected to present data showing that any risks are far outweighed by the good the drugs do. Authorities on respiratory illnesses downplayed the chances that the committee will order the drugs off the market. Advair is the fourth-best selling drug in the world with annual sales of $4.5 billion.

- see this story from The New York Times

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