[Astute in vivo observations discover anti-asthma medication]

Will the new reductive biology write the book of revelation of all progress as concerns the pathophysiology and pharmacology of asthma? The early and recent medical history of anti-asthma drugs supports the possibility that exploratory in vivo research involving patients and disease-like test systems may "unexpectedly" provide leap discoveries in pathophysiology and pharmacology. New treatments based on defined molecular disease mechanisms will no doubt emerge. However, the future may also hold novel important anti-asthma drugs where the exact mode of action remains a challenge. Indeed, many aspects of the efficacies of the already long established anti-asthma drug principles have yet to be explained at the end-organ, cellular and molecular levels.