Advair and African Americans

Recent research suggests that African Americans with asthma who use salmeterol - one of two drugs that make up the asthma medication, Advair - may face an increased risk of asthma-related death.

Information from a safety trial on salmeterol (also known by its commercial name, Serevent) expressed that asthma-related deaths occurred four times as often among African-Americans who used Serevent than among African-American asthmatics who did not take the drug. Non-African Americans who participated in the study and took Serevent showed no significant increase in deaths compared to non-African Americans who did not take the medication. Serevent is the commercial form of salmeterol, and was developed by the maker of Advair, GlaxoSmithKline.

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After 13,176 participants were treated with Serevent for 28 weeks, thirteen deaths occurred compared with just three deaths among an equal number of participants who did not take Serevent. What researchers find startling is that, even though African Americans accounted for only 18% of the participants, seven of the thirteen participants who died while being treated with Serevent were African American. "We don't know why there was this pattern, and would like to do further studies," Federal Drug Administration spokeswoman, Laura Bradbard, told the press. "Is it a socioeconomic reason? Is there a problem getting to the doctor often enough? Is the doctor following the guidelines? Or is there a physiological reason why African-Americans have more asthma? It does seem that population suffers from more asthma, and it tends to be more severe. Is it because it's not being treated, or because it's being treated too late? There are too many questions. That's why we need more studies."

Harold S. Nelson, MD, a professor of medicine at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center who led the research study has hypothesized that the apparent racial difference among the study population is probably not due to genetic or other physiologic differences between blacks and whites. He believes, instead, that economically disadvantaged African-Americans in the study may have been less able to control their asthma because they were not taking an inhaled corticosteriod along with Serevent. "In the patients who were not on inhaled corticosteroids, [Serevent] may have relieved their symptoms but masked their worsening asthma," he says. So far, GlaxoSmithkline has not studied whether Advair might cause a higher death rate, and the drug company has not announced any plans to begin such a study. GlaxoSmithKline sponsored the Serevent study, but after a significant number of fatal asthma attacks occurred, the company cut it short.

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If you or a family member has used Advair and you would like to discuss your rights surrounding Advair with an attorney experienced in pharmaceutical injury, please fill out this short form and a member of Seeger Weiss's legal staff will contact you. Initial consultations with attorneys are free of charge and do not create an attorney-client relationship. Seeger Weiss, LLP is one of the nation?s most established complex litigation and class action law firms. The firm maintains offices in both New York and New Jersey, and its attorneys are available to practice throughout the country.