Suppose a manufacturer has a high-priced, branded drug for asthma, used mostly by younger patients, and a high-priced drug for arthritis, used mostly by the old.

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Genentech (nasdaq: DNA - news - people ) and Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ) are nearing approval for their new drug Xolair, the first bioengineered drug for severe asthma.

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Moroney believes Pfizer's drug pipeline--which includes drugs for asthma, smoking cessation, cancer and osteoporosis--should offset stiff competition from generic-drug makers in aging product lines.

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Another potential winner: a drug called a PDE-4 inhibitor for asthma.

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For years, asthma specialists have debated whether a commonly used drug salmeterol can make the disease worse.

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Drug firms have been working on them for decades as part of an effort to come up with new asthma medications, but most were abandoned as only mildly effective.

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In 1948 one study of 2, 200 asthma patients found a fivefold-higher death rate for patients who inhaled epinephrine, a beta drug, versus those who hadn't.

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