A review of studies has concluded that fluticasone, a new drug, is as effective as two inhaled asthma drugs but at half the dose for treating chronic asthma cases in terms of improved lung function.

According to review author Dr. Nick Adams, a private practitioner in Tonbridge, England, and colleagues, fluticasone is equally effective as beclomethasone and budesonide for opening up constricted breathing passages.

From News-Medical.Net:

For instance, the Pulmicort Turbohaler, which contains budesonide, “is the most cost-effective preparation because the cost per usual daily dose, one inhalation twice daily, is lower than any of the other inhaled steroids,” Weinberger says.

In a second review conducted by Adams and colleagues, the researchers compared fluticasone treatments with a placebo and concluded that the drug “is highly effective even in low doses” and can be used alongside more powerful oral steroids.

“In people with severe asthma who need oral steroid tablets to control their asthma, it can reduce the dose of oral steroids they need and improve their asthma at the same time,” Adams explains.

Patients taking fluticasone were less likely than those taking a placebo to abandon the treatment because their asthma was getting worse instead of better, an advantage that is “clearly worthwhile from a clinical perspective,” the reviewers write.

Fluticasone, beclomethasone, and budesonide are inhaled corticosteroid drugs that minimize airway swelling and irritation in asthmatic patients.

This review appeared in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, which is an international organization evaluating medical research.