Risks
On November 18, 2005, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alerted healthcare professionals and patients that several long-acting bronchodilator medicines have been associated with possible increased risk of worsening wheezing in some people, and requested that manufacturers update warnings in their existing product labeling.
On June 29, 2006, Cornell University and Stanford University researchers reported that a meta-analysis they conducted found that "regularly inhaled beta-agonists (Orciprenaline/metaproterenol, formoterol Foradil, fluticasone/salmeterol, and salbutamol/albuterol ) increased the risk of respiratory death more than twofold, compared with a placebo," while used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
On December 11, 2008, a panel of experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to ban the drugs Serevent and Foradil from use in the treatment of asthma. It was shown that, when these two drugs are used without steroids, they increase the risks of more severe attacks. The experts said that two other much more popular asthma drugs containing long-acting beta-agonists, Advair and Symbicort, should continue to be used. The latter contains formoterol as contained in Foradil but also a steroid budesonide.
Read more about this topic: Beta2-adrenergic Agonist
Famous quotes containing the word risks:
“There are risks which are not acceptable: the destruction of humanity is one of them.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The amount of it is, if a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The question is whether personal freedom is worth the terrible effort, the never-lifted burden and risks of self-reliance.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968)