10th November 2001
<quote>While Advair is a combination of Flovent and Serevent, it is NOT the same thing. Flovent and Serevent are aerosol, and Advair is a very, very fine powder.</quote>
Actually what I was getting at was more that Advair's fine powder form is marketed as a device called "Diskus". This is analogous to perhaps the Rotahaler, the Turbuhaler, or the Diskhaler. They're just brand-names for dry powder-inhalers.
I understand that Serevent and Flovent are available in aerosol forms, and recently Glaxo has realized that aerosol forms are not proper for everyone, and has thus marketed the same drug in different forms. For instance, while Serevent *is* available as a puffer most commonly, you can also get it as a diskhaler (four blisters per disk) and as a Diskus (Which is the same format as the Advair.)
Flovent works the same way -- four strengths of Diskus inhaler. The colors are even the same, except how with the different strengths of flovent puffer the colors changed slightly (light pink to orange to brown color schemes) the Diskus stays the same color, a reddish and an orange, for every different strength.
Advair is available with a standardized dose of Serevent in every strength made available in Flovent. If that sentence didn't make sense, let me rephrase. This means, that if you (for example) take 250 ug of Flovent in the morning, you can find an advair diskus that contains that exact same amount of fluticasone, as well as the same amount of salmeterol contained in one actuation of the serevent inhaler.
Where this becomes a problem is perhaps for people who are on such doses of Flovent where it is difficult to co-ordinate dosages with Advair, as with Advair, if you take an extra puff, you're not only doubling the dosage of Flovent, you're doubling the dosage of Serevent as well. This can be an inconvenience if you self-manage your doses and adjust as needed. (I remember people used to do that with the beclovent and switch to becloforte during a flare up -- is this done with flovent and pulmicort still today?)
[This message has been edited by wrin (edited 11-10-2001).]
Actually what I was getting at was more that Advair's fine powder form is marketed as a device called "Diskus". This is analogous to perhaps the Rotahaler, the Turbuhaler, or the Diskhaler. They're just brand-names for dry powder-inhalers.
I understand that Serevent and Flovent are available in aerosol forms, and recently Glaxo has realized that aerosol forms are not proper for everyone, and has thus marketed the same drug in different forms. For instance, while Serevent *is* available as a puffer most commonly, you can also get it as a diskhaler (four blisters per disk) and as a Diskus (Which is the same format as the Advair.)
Flovent works the same way -- four strengths of Diskus inhaler. The colors are even the same, except how with the different strengths of flovent puffer the colors changed slightly (light pink to orange to brown color schemes) the Diskus stays the same color, a reddish and an orange, for every different strength.
Advair is available with a standardized dose of Serevent in every strength made available in Flovent. If that sentence didn't make sense, let me rephrase. This means, that if you (for example) take 250 ug of Flovent in the morning, you can find an advair diskus that contains that exact same amount of fluticasone, as well as the same amount of salmeterol contained in one actuation of the serevent inhaler.
Where this becomes a problem is perhaps for people who are on such doses of Flovent where it is difficult to co-ordinate dosages with Advair, as with Advair, if you take an extra puff, you're not only doubling the dosage of Flovent, you're doubling the dosage of Serevent as well. This can be an inconvenience if you self-manage your doses and adjust as needed. (I remember people used to do that with the beclovent and switch to becloforte during a flare up -- is this done with flovent and pulmicort still today?)
[This message has been edited by wrin (edited 11-10-2001).]