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These drugs have long contained a label that reads, "increases risk of asthma-related death", but apparently this warning is not enough for this extreme class of medications. Known as long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs), these asthma drugs are used by roughly six million asthma sufferers to combat asthma symptoms. Ironically, LABAs are so dangerous that, if not combined with other asthma drugs, can actually cause an asthma attack.
It defies logic to try to figure out how asthma drugs that can kill people by causing severe asthma attacks are considered to be useful and effective medicine. Instead of pulling these dangerous drugs from the market entirely as it should, the FDA is ordering that stronger labels be affixed to warn doctors and physicians about the extreme risks associated with taking the drugs. It is unclear from the agency's press release exactly how it intends to strengthen the drugs' current death warning.
The FDA has indicated that it will require the drugs' manufacturers to conduct education campaigns for medical professionals about how to safely use the LABA asthma drugs. The agency is also mandating that each manufacturer conduct additional studies to verify the safety of their drugs.
Since 2002, the FDA had continually rejected all of the overwhelming evidence presented to it that LABAs are inherently dangerous. Only in 2008 did the FDA first admit that the drugs were dangerous, particularly for children and some adults. Prior to that, the agency seemed to be in agreement with a series of industry spin pieces concocted by the drug industry to defend the alleged safety of the drugs; this alone exhibits the FDA's lunacy in asking the industry to conduct more of its own safety studies.
While warning that the drugs should only be used "as necessary" seems like a step in the right direction, the FDA should be taking a leap to pull these drugs off the market. Many experts agree that these drugs are wholly dangerous, and that the industry has been aware of these dangers for nearly a decade. Once again, the FDA is giving lip service to the public it is supposed to be defending while protecting drug industry interests instead.
Sources:
FDA: Tougher Warnings for some Asthma Drugs
FDA Should Have Banned LABAs Five Years Ago
FDA: Long-Acting Asthma Drugs Increase Asthma Risks
I will defend some life-saving and life-giving medications. Advair is a product that has given me a normal life. After a lifetime (over 35 years) of daily medicating with all other brands of asthma drugs, Advair is the one that relieves my symptoms, keeps me out of the hospital, and lets me live a normal life. I have been on it for about 10 years and experience none of the dangerous side effects I did with other asthma meds. ALL asthma medications can have dangerous side effects--some for everyone--some for only certain people. ASTHMA IS A LIFE THREATENING DISEASE--IT KILLS PEOPLE REGULARLY--usually the people and especially children who cannot afford the expensive but effective drugs like Advair. If you have ever struggled to breathe then you should understand how life with ineffective or no asthma medication is only half a life and a dangerous painful struggle. There are no risk free medications to my knowledge. There is no risk free life. Untreated asthma is a death sentence for many, and life with untreated asthma is like constantly drowning and struggling to get to the surface only there is no surface. My only complaint with Advair is that it is prohibitively expensive and beyond the budgets of most people without good health insurance. It likely does have dangerous side effects for some people, but so does asthma--a strangling, drowning death. Until there is a better treatment, or I can find a cure for my asthma, stop threatening my life by trying to remove the medication that allows me to live.
shellycheval