Corporate Watch

Corporate Watch - WSJ.com: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it plans to implement new 'safety controls' for a class of long-acting asthma drugs, largely by adding tougher warnings about the proper use of the drugs to the product labels.

The changes affect GlaxoSmithKline PLC's Advair and Serevent, Novartis AG's Foradil, which is marketed in the U.S. by Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca PLC's Symbicort. The FDA said the drugs should only be used for the shortest time possible 'to achieve control of asthma symptoms and discontinued, if possible, once asthma control is achieved.' Patients should then be maintained on another asthma controller medication, the FDA said." [WSJ]