Results From One-Year Study Suggest Advair(R) Provides Important Benefits for African American Patients W...( Results Suggested Improvements in S...),Health

Results Suggested Improvements in Several Endpoints for Advair Diskus(R)

Compared to ICS Alone

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- African American patients with asthma treated with Advair Diskus, a combination of the long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) salmeterol and the inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) fluticasone propionate, had a lower rate of exacerbations when compared with patients who received treatment with the ICS Flovent Diskus(R) (fluticasone propionate inhalation powder) alone, although the difference was not statistically significant. Patients in the Advair group also showed improvements in lung function measures, nighttime awakenings due to asthma, and reductions in daily symptoms and rescue inhaler use compared to Flovent. The data was published in the June 2008 issue of Current Medical Research and Opinion.

This large prospective trial, which followed 475 patients who received either twice-daily Advair Diskus 100/50 (fluticasone propionate and salmeterol inhalation powder) or twice-daily Flovent Diskus 100mcg for a year, was the first prospective study to assess the addition of a LABA to an ICS compared to ICS alone in African Americans with persistent asthma.

In this study, Advair provided important benefits to patients and no increased rate of adverse events compared with Flovent in the African American patient population. The findings of the study also contribute to the body of evidence which has found that salmeterol (a LABA) is not associated with an increase in serious asthma-related events when used with an ICS, but rather provides clinical benefits for patients who require more than ICS treatment alone to control their asthma.

"Uncontrolled asthma is a critical public health issue for African Americans, and this research is reassuring for clinicians whose patients are not controlled on an ICS alone that treatment with Advair helps improve day-to-day asthma control," said
'/>"/>