NIH unveils new asthma guidelines

New asthma treatment guidelines could be good news for drug companies. The government advises better day-to-day control of the disease--and that probably means more widespread use of inhaled corticosteroid drugs such as Flovent (GlaxoSmithKline), Azmacort (Sanofi-Aventis), and Pulmicort (AstraZeneca).

For patients with severe asthma, the National Institutes of Health report also recommends Omalizumab, a Genentech/Novartis drug sold under the brand name Xolair, which targets antibodies that can cause asthma symptoms.

- see the new NIH guidelines
- read the Washington Post's take
- and check out this piece on AstraZeneca's asthma drugs

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