High medicine cost and low patient compliance are key issues in asthma treatment globally

World Asthma Day (May 6) saw an uproar in UK media attention due to the National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD), published by the Royal College of Physicians, which revealed that due to substandard physician education, doctors and nurses were unable to recognize signs of poor asthma control; however, several other unmet needs must be addressed globally, says an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

A number of official sources estimate that up to 5.4 million people in the UK are currently receiving treatment for asthma, and the NRAD reported that 1,200 die annually of the disease. Spain and Italy have around half the asthma mortality rate of the UK, while asthma prevalence in these two countries is also about half of that in the UK.

According to Valentina Gburcik, GlobalData's senior analyst covering cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, the NRAD report failed to consider that the prevalence of asthma in the UK is among the highest in the world, so the number of asthma-related deaths is also naturally much higher.