Health Highlights: March 2, 2008

FDA: Inhaler Capsules Mistakenly Being Swallowed

Some consumers prescribed respiratory inhalers that include capsules full of medicine are mistakenly swallowing the capsules instead of inhaling the contents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned.

The Spiriva HandiHaler and the Foradil Aerolizer are prescribed to people with asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases, theAssociated Pressreported. The FDA said it has received several reports of people swallowing the capsules, which will do nothing to assist breathing. The only proper way to use the capsules is to inhale the contents with the inhalers.

The FDA "indicated that not many of the patients who swallowed the capsules reported side effects," theAPreported.

The Spiriva product is produced and co-marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer; the Foradil inhaler is made by Novartis and marketed in the United States by Schering-Plough.

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Wyeth's New Antidepressant Gets FDA OK

Drug maker Wyeth has received U.S. government approval to replace its successful antidepressant Effexor XR (venlafaxine hydrochloride), which is facing patent expiration within the next two years with a different drug that the company says has some added advantages.

TheNew York Timesreports that Wyeth received approval Feb. 29 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market Pristiq (desvenlafaxine succinate). Effexor XR's patent expires in 2010.

Wyeth maintains that Pristiq has some new features, theTimesreports. First, patients will be able to begin treatment at the therapeutic dose level of 50 milligrams (mg). Usually, a patient starting out on an antidepressant has to take a lower dose for a few weeks before working up to the therapeutic dose.

Second, the drug doesn't have to be broken down by the liver, as its predecessor does, the newspaper reports. This eliminates problems of drug interactions, theTimesquotes a Wyeth spokesperson as saying.

Effexor XR's 2007 sales were $3.8 billion, the newspaper said.