Asthma - Over-prescribing is common in intermittent and mild forms of asthma

Asthma is managed using a step-wise approach, with bronchodilators to relieve symptoms of airflow limitation and controller medications to target underlying inflammation. Datamonitor's research shows that almost all patients (even those with mild intermittent asthma) receive some type of controller medication as their baseline treatment, which is in line with international management guidelines.

Recently, the classification of asthma has shifted to the concept of disease control in order to acknowledge the variability of the disease. Datamonitor research showed that around half of the physicians have taken on this new asthma classification, which may illustrate the transition away from the traditional severity classification.

The ICS class as a whole scored rather low on speed of onset, which may indicate an unmet need in this class. The traditional products Flixotide/Flovent (fluticasone) and Pulmicort (budesonide) scored consistently higher than the novel products Asmanex (mometasone) and Alvesco (ciclesonide).

Of the combination products in development, physicians were most aware of GSK's Beyond Advair, probably due to the fact that GSK already has had Advair/Seretide on the market. The other four ICS/LABA combinations were less well-known since they all come from companies without a current combination product on the market.

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