Panel Ignores Deaths: Keeps Asthma Drugs On Market

July 14, 2005 -- GlaxoSmithKline may have suffered some sleepless nights, holding its breath while a US advisory panel debated the merits of its key drug Advair/Seretide and related Serevent. Serevent was one of the drugs called out by FDA's David Graham, of Vioxx fame, as unsafe. Novartis also has a compound, Foradil, in the same class at stake. The drugs are huge moneymakers. We look at the decision, which is significant because the FDA panel overlooked a (small) chance of death to keep a helpful drug on the market...