Sweetpiece: The FDA considers pulling off THOUSANDS of medications a day based on the sheer number of adverse drug effects reported from all walks of life (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients, random drug studies conducted by companies). However, it did not pull Advair off the market and it continues to be sold to patients worldwide. The Advair issue was with salmeterol, the long-acting beta-agonist component of the medication, and not the corticosteroids. The risk was stated in placebo testing that 3 out of 10,000 patients had an asthma related death, as opposed to 13 out of 10,000 patients who had an asthma related death while taking Advair. While 10 patients may seem like a lot patients, it is still unreasonable in my opinion, as a health care professional, to advise against taking Advair. Thousands of patients rely on this life saving medication for better asthma control, and if I had asthma that required the dual action of a LABA and a corticosteroid, then I would most certainly be on this medication.
Just because ONE person has a poor reaction to a medication doesn't mean that it should be avoided by all patients. Most patients are encouraged to try alternative methods if they are in the earlier stages of asthma; however, most find that these methods are simply not effective enough and they move onto alternatives like Advair (which is a combination of fluticasone and salmeterol). And Lily looks like she's taking in Ventolin in this picture (salbutamol).
The Advair issue was with salmeterol, the long-acting beta-agonist component of the medication, and not the corticosteroids. The risk was stated in placebo testing that 3 out of 10,000 patients had an asthma related death, as opposed to 13 out of 10,000 patients who had an asthma related death while taking Advair.
While 10 patients may seem like a lot patients, it is still unreasonable in my opinion, as a health care professional, to advise against taking Advair. Thousands of patients rely on this life saving medication for better asthma control, and if I had asthma that required the dual action of a LABA and a corticosteroid, then I would most certainly be on this medication.