Month: July 2012

A drug that combines two types of medicines for chronic lung disease showed positive results in four studies, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said. The drug is a dry powder inhaler for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It contains two types of drugs that often are used for COPD. One is an anticholinergic called umeclidinium bromide. The other is a beta agonist, vilanterol. These two types of drugs relax airways, but in different ways. The new combination drug is long-acting. It is taken once a day. In a 24-week study, the inhaler showed better results than its two component drugs given separately, GSK said. A separate study compared the new inhaler with tiotropium (Spiriva), a rival anticholinergic drug. The new inhaler also provided better results in this study, GSK said. GSK is developing the new drug along with the British drug maker Theravance.

Far more U.S. children are visiting dentists now than 50 years ago, surveys show. And a racial gap in dental care has disappeared, a new study finds. The study looked data from 5 health surveys. The first survey was taken in 1964. Then, 48% of children had visited a dentist in the last 12 months. That included 20% of African-American children and 52% of white children. By 2010, the last survey, 78% of children had a recent dental visit. The percentage was the same for both races. The journal Pediatrics published the study July 2.