Washington, February 20: The Food and Drug Administration has issued some health warnings for Asthma drugs like Advair, Symbicort, Foradil and Serevent. The FDA says that the long-acting medications should be issued with some safety restrictions in place. “The reality is the available options to treat asthma are not that great,” FDA’s director of new drugs, Dr. John Jenkins, said in a statement.
For patients who cannot control their aliment with inhaled corticosteroids alone, “their options for additional therapy are, in and of themselves, drugs with a lot of risk,” Jenkins added. It was learnt that asthma drugs could in fact lead to life threatening risks by shielding the worsening asthma conditions. The FDA also said that the medications should be used for the shortest duration possible. “Even though LABAs decrease the frequency of asthma episodes, these medicines may make asthma episodes more severe when they occur”, according to the FDA.
FDA doctors have also advised that the LABA-containing medications should only be used simultaneously with different asthma-controlling medication, such as inhaled corticosteroids. Medical guidelines already ask the asthma sufferers to use a LABA together, with an inhaled corticosteroid to relieve inflammation. The FDA also said it isn’t thinking about banning these medications, since they do help people with other lung diseases who can use them without the asthma risk.
–Agencies–