Advair V Spiriva

[larrynz]

www.reuters.com:80/article/businessNews/idUSL1987254320071228
Glaxo says Advair shows edge over Spiriva in COPD
LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday that clinical trial results showed its top-seller Advair had an edge over Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) rival product Spiriva in treating patients with the lung disease COPD.
A two-year study of 1,300 patients found both drugs had a similar impact on rate of exacerbations, but people treated with Advair gained a significant improvement in health status and greater survival benefit than those on Spiriva, the firm said.
Advair reduced the risk of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) dying from any cause by 52 percent compared with patients on Spiriva.
Results of the first head-to-head study of the two medicines in COPD were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
While the number of exacerbations -- or sudden worsening of symptoms -- was not significantly different between the two groups, cases requiring antibiotics were more frequent in patients on Advair while exacerbations needing systemic steroids were more common with Spiriva.
In terms of safety and tolerability, there was an increase in cases of pneumonias in the Advair group, at 8 percent, compared with 4 percent with Spiriva. Candidiasis was also reported more often in the Advair group (6 percent) than the Spiriva group (3 percent).
Advair, which is also sold as Seretide, is Glaxo's biggest product, with 2006 sales of 3.3 billion pounds.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, Editing by Erica Billingham)

[maryaz]

Hi Larry; I saw this earlier and my first impression was that this is not a fair comparison.

Advair is both an anti-inflammatory and a bronchodilator (Steroid and Long-acting b-agonist)

Spiriva is a Long-acting Anticholinergic

On top of that, people like myself, and many others are taking both medicines together. I sure must be missing something.

Also, to me the competition is Advair and Symbicort once people get to using the Symbicort.

I would love to here how this study is of any help. Then I can learn more because this doesn't go along with what I know.

LarryNZ, Know anything about Needle Biopsy. I got a post on CI. I put it there because not many people here and I wanted input.

[larrynz]

Know anything about Needle Biopsy

Sorry Mary I can't help, perhaps another member.

[LindaNY]

Interesting article Larry. It will be interesting to see what comes of this study.

Mary, Here is some info on a needle biopsy.

www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=nlungbiop&bhcp=1

[maryaz]

Larry; I just had thought maybe you might have had some personal experience.

LindaMT, thanks for the site. That was one of two that I found on my own and so must be pretty good one. Really was looking for personal experiences. This topic is something else but just wanted to ask Larry since he posted here.

Thanks to both of you.

[Vic]

One other thing that should be viewed with some importance is the fact that this was a Glaxo-sponsored trial.

As everybody probably knows, being able to set the ground-rules for your own trial can certainly have a great influence on the outcome. -- Vic

[larrynz]

Very True Vic it is a Glaxo trial.
The other thing that is important is a medicine that works well for one person may not for another.
Good to read it all though.