Everyone Healthy medication library
Long Acting Beta Agonist Drug Class
Medicines in this drug class are grouped together in the Everyone Healthy medication database. This page is educational only and should not be used as personal prescribing advice.
Drug class overview
Long Acting Beta Agonist overview
Long acting beta-adrenoceptor agonist
Long acting beta-adrenoceptor agonists are usually prescribed for moderate to severe persistent asthma patients or patients with COPD. They are designed to replace the shorter acting B2-agonists such as salbutamol, as they have a duration of action of approximately 12 hours in comparison with the 4-6 hour duration of salbutamol, making them ideal candidates for twice-daily administration. Long acting B2-agonists' long duration of action is due to the addition of a long, lipophilic side chain which binds to an exosite. This allows the active portion of the molecule to continually bind and unbind at B2 receptors in the smooth muscle in the lungs.
Some currently available long acting beta-adrenoceptor agonists are:
An ultra-long-acting beta-adrenoceptor agonist which has a duration of action of 24 hours, allowing for once-daily dosing [1] is now approved for use in Europe:[2]
Footnotes
Linked medicines
0 medicines in this class
No linked medicines were found for this drug class in the detected link table. The drug class exists, but the drug-class-to-medicine link table may need a table-name or column-name adjustment.