Table 1.

Comparative daily costs for asthma drugs

Drug	Dosage regimen	Cost per day*
Inhaled beclomethasone (Qvar)	200 μg twice daily	16p
Inhaled cromoglycate (Non-proprietary)	10 mg four times daily	99p
Inhaled salmeterol (Serevent)	50 μg twice daily	95p
Inhaled salbutamol (Non-proprietary)	200 μg four times daily	7p
Oral montelukast (Singulair)	10 mg once daily	92p
Oral theophylline (Uniphyllin)	200 mg twice daily	14p

^*Calculated from British National Formulary, No 36 (March 1998). The cheapest formulation of each drug was taken.