Seretide

Today we had a visit from a drug rep. She was promoting Seretide - known as Advair in the US. The worstpills best pills website places a "do not use" on this product. The FDA has put out a black box warning on it. From my point of view it's a last choice choice.

FDA SEREVENT Medication Guide for Patients (6/8/2006)

In patients with asthma, LABA medicines, such as salmeterol, may increase the chance of death from asthma problems. In a large asthma study, more patients who used salmeterol died from asthma problems compared with patients who did not use salmeterol. It is not known whether fluticasone propionate, the other medicine in ADVAIR HFA SERETIDE, changes your chance of death from asthma problems seen with salmeterol.

FDA BLACK BOX WARNING FOR SALMETEROL WITH FLUTICASONE

Long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonists, such as salmeterol, one of the active ingredients in ADVAIR DISKUS SERETIDE, may increase the risk of asthma-related death. Therefore, when treating patients with asthma, physicians should only prescribe ADVAIR DISKUS SERETIDE for patients not adequately controlled on other asthma-controller medications (e.g., low- to medium-dose inhaled corticosteroids) or whose disease severity clearly warrants initiation of treatment with 2 maintenance therapies. Data from a large placebo-controlled US study that compared the safety of salmeterol (SEREVENT Inhalation Aerosol) or placebo added to usual asthma therapy showed an increase in asthma-related deaths in patients receiving salmeterol (13 deaths out of 13,176 patients treated for 28 weeks on salmeterol versus 3 deaths out of 13,179 patients on placebo).