Goodtimepolitics

UPDATE: Dec 05, 2008
If you think taking aerosol out of inhalers is bad then read this!
A Food and Drug Administration analysis of four drugs used to treat asthma said the products are linked with an increased risk of asthma-related side effects, with higher risks seen in children.

The analysis, released Friday, looked at GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s Serevent and Advair, Novartis AG’s and Schering-Plough Corp.’s Foradil and AstraZeneca PLC’s Symbicort.

It looked at whether the drugs increased a combined measure of asthma-related death, hospitalization and asthma-related intubation, or the placement of a tube in patients’ noses or mouths to help them breathe.

The analysis was prepared for an advisory committee meeting next week to discuss the safety of the drugs as a class. The panel will be asked to vote on whether the drugs should continue to be marketed for children and adults.

Agency memos released along with the analysis show the agency is divided over what course of action to take. The FDA’s drug safety division is recommending that the drugs not be marketed for children, and in some cases adults, while the agency’s pulmonary division stated that removing the products from the market would be “extreme.”
SOURCE: The WSJ

Asthma inhalers go “green” on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch.

The medicine inside these rescue inhalers the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack isn’t changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.

No more chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which damage Earth’s protective ozone layer. By year’s end, all albuterol inhalers must be powered by the more eco-friendly chemical HFA, or hydrofluoroalkane.

The down side: The new inhalers cost more, $30 to $60 compared with as little as $5 for the disappearing generic CFC inhalers.

And patients face a learning curve. HFA inhalers must be used differently than the old-fashioned kind. The medicine feels and tastes different, sometimes alarming new users despite doctors’ assurances that it works just as well.

Read more here at the source:
SOURCE:  Star-Telegram

Seem that the people pushing green care more about their cause than the people that are sick! Which should come first the sick people or something that the government is not even sure about?

LINKS:
(1) Ozone-Depleting Inhalers Being Phased Out
(2) Respiratory Leaders Urge Medical Community to Educate Patients Transitioning CFC to HFA Inhalers
(3) Deadlines for other inhalers to go eco-friendly
Other types of CFC-containing inhalers will be phased out later.
The Food and Drug Administration has proposed December 2009 as the deadline for seven prescription-only inhalers to either go CFC-free or quit selling. They include:
_Cromolyn and nedocromil, a separate family of drugs used to prevent wheezing, often in connection with allergy exposure.
_Combivent, a combination of albuterol and ipratropium commonly used by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD.
_Two additional quick-acting alternatives to albuterol, metaproterenol and pirbuterol.
_And two corticosteroids, inflammation-reducing drugs, called flunisolide and triamcinolone.