Fenoterol approved

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 4

Fenoterol approved

By

DAVID CLARKSON and NZPA

The asthma control drug, fenoterol, has come under attack from the lobby group, Public Eyes, but the Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee has again decided it should stay in use.

The committee has been supported by a lecturer in respiratory diseases at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Graham Crompton, who was visiting Christchurch on a lecture tour yesterday. He is speaking to medical groups about the use of asthma inhalers, particularly the newly designed Respolin Autohaler. He said fenoterol was widely used throughout the world and a recent study in Belgium, where it had 40 per cent of the bronchodilator market, showed no increase in the death rate. New drugs were bound to be prescribed to patients in cases where their asthma was not already well under control. They were also more likely to be prescribed in more severe cases, in which patients were more at risk, he said. Public Eyes warned that as many as 150 New Zealanders might have died from using the drug,

and criticised the Health Department for not banning its use in New Zealand. Studies by a Wellington School of Medicine team have alleged that severe asthmatics are between two and ten times more likely to die if prescribed fenoterol than if prescribed other bronchodilator aerosol medication. Two studies have now been completed, and the Minister of Health, Ms Clark, released the findings of the committee yesterday. "The committee previously advised the Minister after it considered the first study that no immediate action was required to withdraw fenoterol from use for asthma in New Zealand,” she said. “The committee noted that physicians must balance this conclusion with good arguments for the use of fenoterol rather than alternative medicines for severe asthmatics.,” Ms Clark said.