In the late 1970s asthma deaths in New Zealand soared after a beta agonist called fenoterol hit the market.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The two companies joined forces in August 1998 to finish the work on the agonist molecule that had begun in the late 1980s.

FORBES: Putting A Patch On Parkinson's Disease

It may be that the presence of the second drug in Advair, the steroid Flovent, quells any threat posed by Serevent (the beta agonist) in many patients.

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But rotigotine has a distinct advantage: It's the first dopamine agonist to be delivered via a patch, thereby allowing patients to have a consistent dose of the drug in their systems at all times.

FORBES: Putting A Patch On Parkinson's Disease

The purple puck delivers a blast of two Glaxo medicines that won approval years before: Serevent, a "beta agonist" that was cleared in England in 1990 and in the U.S. in 1994, and Flovent, an inhaled steroid that won U.S. approval in 1996.

FORBES: Trouble Breathing