Spiriva As Good As Serevent In Asthma Study

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Researchers say they've found a possible new treatment for adults with hard-to-control asthma.

A federally funded study found that Spiriva, which is used to treat emphysema and other lung problems worked as well as the asthma drug Serevent.

But the discovery came at a price. Scientists had to spend nearly $1 million of taxpayers' money after British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline declined to donate its asthma drug and look-alike dummy medicine for the study.

Drug companies aren't required to supply their medicines for study, but they often do.

Results were presented at a medical conference in Spain and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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