Pulmonologists seek a drug to reduce the exacerbation rate for asthma, says Decision Resources

No current or emerging therapy surpasses the market-leading asthma therapy Advair/Seretide/Adoair (fluticasone and salmeterol), from UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), in terms of reducing exacerbations, according to pulmonologists surveyed by health care advisory firm Decision Resources.

Its survey found that pulmonologists in the USA and Europe agree that a drug's effect on reducing the exacerbation rate is one of the attributes that most influences their prescribing for persistent asthma. Clinical data and the opinions of interviewed thought leaders indicate that no current or emerging therapy is currently positioned to surpass GSK’s Advair/Seretide/Adoair on this measure.

The DecisionBase report titled Asthma: Where do Pulmonologists and Payers Signal the Greatest Need - and Greatest Opportunity for Differentiation - for Novel Therapies for Persistent Disease? found that surveyed US and European pulmonologists and US managed care organization (MCO) pharmacy directors consider therapies with improvements on measures of exacerbation rate to be one of the greatest unmet needs for persistent asthma. Therapies that offer an improvement on these end points would have the most opportunity for differentiation.