Positive Advair data compared to Singulair/fluticasone

A study presented at the 97th International Conference of the AmericanThoracic Society in San Francisco has shown that patients treated with GlaxoSmithKline's combination asthma treatment Advair Diskus (salmeterol/fluticasone) 100/50 twice-daily had significantly greater improvements in lung function than patients using Merck & Co's Singulair (montelukast) 10mg once-daily with fluticasone 100mcg inhalation powder twice-daily.

The study was conducted in 725 patients with persistent asthma (mean baseline forced expiratory volume 74% to 76% of predicted) who were aged 15 and older and symptomatic on fluticasone propionate 100mcg twice daily. Its primary endpoint was mean morning peak expiratory flow, a standard measure of lung function, over a 12-week period.

Kathy Rickard, vice president of respiratory clinical development at GSK, said the study suggests that "effective treatment of the two main components of asthma - inflammation and bronchoconstriction - is better achieved with Advair Diskus than by adding a leukotriene modifier to an inhaled corticosteroid."