Prolonged use of asthma drugs could be dangerous, FDA study says

WASHINGTON Patients with asthma run the risk of dying from using four popular asthma drugs, two officials from the Food and Drug Administration have said, though the officials’ conclusions remain controversial, according to published reports.

The officials wrote in an assessment that patients should not use the drugs, though another official said adults could use them. At the same time, they have said the risk of death from using the drugs is small, and the companies making them have dismissed the officials’ assessment.

The four drugs—GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair and Serevent, AstraZeneca’s Symbicort, and Novartis’s Foradil—had combined global sales of almost $10 billion last year.