Speakers at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Annual Meeting this week in Orlando, Fla, disputed US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) statements that long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) drugs increase the risk of death or severe exacerbations in asthma patients when combined with inhaled steroids, according to a MedPage Today article.
The speakers, including Thomas Casale, MD, AAAAI’s executive vice president and past president, and Monica Kraft, MD, from Duke University and president-elect of the American Thoracic Society, argued that the FDA went beyond what the available science showed and suggested that the FDA went too far when, in 2010, it ordered LABA drug labels to say that such drugs be stopped when asthma patients achieve good symptom control.
Casale noted that many asthma specialists are currently trying to decide how, or whether, to implement the FDA’s recommendation to stop prescribing LABAs to patients with well-controlled asthma, but that there is a lack of sufficient data to make a decision.
Source: MedPage Today
