Astellas Pharma Inc. (“Astellas”; headquarters: Tokyo; President and CEO: Masafumi Nogimori) and AstraZeneca K.K. (headquarters: Tokyo; President and CEO: Masuhiro Kato) announced thatSymbicort® Turbuhaler® 30 doses and Symbicort® Turbuhaler® 60 doses (generic name: Budesonide/Formoterol fumarate dihydrate) for the treatment of adult bronchial asthma will be launched on January13, 2010 in Japan.

Symbicort® Turbuhaler® is a twice-daily treatment for adult bronchial asthma combining budesonide, an inhaled corticosteroid (one dose containing 160μg) and formoterol fumarate dihydrate, a rapid and long acting β2 agonist (one dose containing 4.5μg), and the product is administered by an inhaler (Turbuhaler).

Characteristics of Symbicort® Turbuhaler® are as follows:
-The Product alone shows good efficacy in countering both of the causes of bronchial asthma, airway inflammation and airway narrowing
- By administering two medications in one product, in addition to the convenience for controlling bronchial asthma, due to the fast onset of bronchial dilation effect of formoterol, patients can easily feel the effect of the treatment. As a result, improvement in adherence (continuation of treatment) can be expected.

Symbicort® Turbuhaler® was listed as a new option for long-term maintenance treatment on “Asthma Prevention and Management Guideline 2009, Japan” which was revised in October 2009.
The guideline recommends that Symbicort® Turbuhaler® can be used for the treatment from step 2 to step 4 as the combination therapy combining an inhaled corticosteroid and a rapid and long-acting β2 agonist.

Symbicort® Turbuhaler® was first approved in Europe in 2000, and is now approved in more than 100 countries and regions. The product will be manufactured and developed by AstraZeneca K.K. and distributed and sold by Astellas Pharma Inc., while promotion will be jointly carried out by both companies (co-promotion).

P.S. Prevent asthma attacks by eating Vitamin C and Vitamin D rich foods and fruits.

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New inhaler delivers considerably far more drug to the deep lung, regardless of strength of breath Dry Powder Inhaler

Cambridge Consultants and Sun Pharma Advanced Investigation Company Ltd create a high efficiency, easy to use dry powder inhaler

Cambridge Consultants, a leading technologies item design and development firm, has created a new high efficiency, simple to use dry powder inhaler in collaboration with Sun Pharma Advanced Investigation Company Ltd (“SPARC”), one of India’s leading pharmaceutical investigation businesses. The inhaler has a uniform delivery profile that ensures the full intended metered dose of the drug is administered to the deep lung, regardless of the strength of the patient’s intake of breath.

The device employs a novel de-agglomeration engine to separate the drug from the lactose ‘carrier’ particles. Based on a extremely efficient airway style, the patented drug separation mechanism has effectively completed clinical trials and demonstrated that it is capable of delivering substantially far more of the drug to the deep lung than classic inhalers. In practice, this will minimise side effects from drug build-up in the back of the throat, decrease non-systemic load and wastage, and implies practically 50% much less active drug needs pre-loading into the device in comparison to a normal inhaler.

This step adjust in inhaler technology is a reliable and easy to use device, particularly for patients with impaired lung function or those using the inhaler in the course of an asthma attack – overcoming any patient concerns about the capability to use the device efficiently.

In addition to its novel drug delivery mechanism, the device integrates a number of user-friendly design functions. These incorporate a numerical dose counter to indicate at a glance how several far more doses are left in the inhaler before it runs out, a luminous function to enable users to locate the device in the dark and a small pop-out ‘braille’ button which activates when there are only a few doses remaining. The device provides audible and tactile feedback to indicate the delivery and completion of user actions. The device also characteristics a distinctive palm-held form, designed to discreetly house the complicated dose carriage and delivery method yet stay comfortable to hold and use.

If you have asthma, know the symptoms of heart disease and other inflammatory illnesses so you can treat them early.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules that will call for coal-burning power plants to limit emissions of toxic air pollutants that are known to exacerbate asthma. That is wonderful news for the 8 percent of Americans who suffer from the breathing disorder. And according to a new study becoming presented at this week’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, it could lead to fewer rates of other inflammatory illnesses. The authors of the study discovered that people with asthma are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular illness, diabetes, irritable bowel disease (IBS), and rheumatoid arthritis than people with wholesome lungs.

THE Particulars: The authors used information from 2,392 folks enrolled in an asthma study in Rochester, Minnesota, half of whom had asthma and the other half did not. They compared the incidence of irritable bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and coronary artery illness among those with asthma and those without having, and found that with every disease, folks with asthma had higher rates. The relationship was strongest with coronary artery illness, in which folks with asthma had a 59 percent higher incidence, and with diabetes, in which folks with diabetes had a 68 percent higher incidence. Rates of irritable bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis also elevated in asthma patients, but, says lead author Young J. Juhn, MD, pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the associations weren’t as powerful.

WHAT IT Means: Although it may seem logical to believe that an inflammatory condition like asthma would be accompanied by other inflammatory conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular illness, Dr. Juhn says his results came as somewhat of a surprise, based on the way our immune systems work. “Our immune systems have some thing referred to as T-helper cells. T-helper 1 cells decide pro-inflammatory conditions, such as coronary artery illness, irritable bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes, whilst T-helper 2 cells are regarded as to play a extremely essential role in determining allergic disorders, such as asthma,” he says. Because our immune systems work to maintain a balance in between the two varieties, he adds, it would stand to reason that men and women with asthma would really have lower rates of those diseases. But that’s not what his study identified. “At this point, we believe there could be some widespread immune mechanisms underlying this association,” he says, most most likely one thing genetic or environmental.