He tried to persuade drug firms to test their asthma drugs on heart patients, but no one was interested in the seemingly wacky idea.

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"It's the first really dramatic advance in 30 years for allergic asthma, " says California-based allergist William Berger , president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, who helped test the drug.

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Last February MacLeod was cleared of failing a previous doping test after he had taken an asthma medicine without permission.

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In February, the Scotland international was cleared of failing a doping test after he had taken an asthma medicine without having the obtained the necessary permission.

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"Because it accounts for 40% of clinical expression of asthma it could be used for a powerful screening test in children, " he added.

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With the asthma-turned-cardio drug Merck is showing a willingness to test new drugs more fully, a criticism it suffered with Vioxx and its Zetia cholesterol drug.

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The children were also screened to see if they had wheezing, asthma, upper respiratory infections, rhinitis, eczema or food allergies at the time of the test.

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