What the British Can Prescribe

British patients have been able to take advantage of many new medicines long before they were available in the U.S. Among them:

RESPIRATORY DRUGS. Eight such drugs were introduced in the decade beginning in 1962, all but one of them in Britain. Four of these, including the bronchodilators proxyphylline and albuterol, are still not available in the U.S. Four have made the transatlantic crossing, including cromolyn sodium, a drug that effectively prevents the debilitating effects of allergic asthma, an ailment that afflicts 1% to 2% of Americans. The time required for the crossing: 5 1/2 years.

ANTIBACTERIAL DRUGS. British doctors have been using co-trimoxazole, a combination of the antibiotics trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole, since 1968. The drug, which successfully combatted bacterial infections after other medications had failed, was not admitted to the U.S. until 1973. Fusidic acid, a steroid-type drug that has proved in practice to be particularly effective against staphylococcus infections, has been used in Britain since 1962. It has yet to be approved for use in the U.S.

CARDIOVASCULAR DRUGS. Of the 19 drugs introduced since 1962 for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, only five are available in the U.S. Clonidine, an effective drug for treating hypertension, was used in Britain for several years before the U.S. okayed it in 1974. Two other effective antihypertensive agents, bethanidine and debrisoquin, which have been available in Britain since 1963 and 1967 respectively, have yet to be approved for use in the U.S. Nor can American physicians freely prescribe propranolol, which Dr. John Laragh of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center considers one of the best of the antihypertensives. The drug, which has been cleared for use against cardiac arhythmias, still has not been approved for the treatment of high blood pressure.

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