Flovent's Off Label Uses

Flovent and the Drug’s off-Label Uses Generally speaking, pharmaceutical companies develop drugs focused on specific conditions. In most cases, these drugs can be used to treat symptoms or conditions they were not originally meant for. These situations would be considered an off label use, meaning it is being used for something other than its intended use. Flovent is no exception to this. It was originally developed for use by asthma patients, but it was later discovered to be an effective treatment for several unrelated conditions. During the course of this paper I will cover the intended use of Flovent and its side effects. We will also discuss some of the off label uses that have been found for this drug. Flovent is an inhaled corticosteroid that is in powder form and comes in two different delivery methods, a DPI and MDI. A DPI, or diskus, is a device that allows the individual to inhale the drug in a dry …show more content…
Eosinophilic esophagitis is essentially inflammation of the esophagus. In this case Flovent is not inhaled but swallowed. Flovent HFA is released into the mouth without being inhaled and is then swallowed in order to coat the esophagus. The idea is that the anti-inflammatory action of the corticosteroid will reduce the inflammation inside the esophagus. The study was carried out on forty-two participants all between the ages of three and sixty-five. Twenty-eight participants were given 1760 µg of Flovent per day and fourteen were given 1760 µg of placebo per day. By the end of the study five participants on Flovent had dropped out and one participant on placebo had also dropped out. Of the twenty-three remaining participants that were using Flovent 65.2% attained remission while none of the participants taking the placebo attained remission. That means Flovent is a successful treatment for eosinophilic esophagitis (Rothenberg,