Glaxo Serevent use in patients with worsening asthma is inappropriate -- "Dear Doctor" letter.
Executive Summary
GLAXO SEREVENT USE IN WORSENING ASTHMA "IS INAPPROPRIATE," the company tells health care professionals in a Jan. 16 "Dear Doctor" letter. The letter, sent to 330,000 physicians and 110,000 pharmacists, nurses and respiratory technicians, emphasizes revisions to Serevent (salmeterol xinafoate) labeling that warn against prescribing the inhalation aerosol for patients who have worsening or deteriorating asthma and use in acute asthma attacks. "These changes in the labeling are being made because serious acute respiratory events, including fatalities, have been reported (both in the U.S. and worldwide) in patients receiving Serevent inhalation aerosol," Glaxo states in the letter.