Unapproved Drugs in the Practice of Medicine

Beclomethasone — a Case in Point Despite the use of all other measures, asthmatic patients in the tens of thousands require prolonged treatment with glucocorticoids to prevent disability or even death. In these patients alternate-day regimens may fail to control the disease, and many suffer serious side effects. Dexamethasone aerosol has been administered topically to the airways with limited success, but some is inevitably swallowed and absorbed, producing adrenal suppression and other steroid side effects. For over three years, wide use of beclomethasone aerosol in England has revolutionized the management of asthma. This steroid, many times more potent topically than . . .