The government is expected to approve a new asthma medication next year that is widely used overseas due to its effectiveness.

More than 3,000 Japanese reportedly die from the chronic lung disease yearly.

In Japan, it is usually managed by using two types of controller medications -- inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting bronchodilators.

But the new drug combines these two types of treatments to offer "total control." The drug -- Advair or Seretide -- was launched by GlaxoSmithKline PLC in 2001.

It combines the inhaled corticosteroid fluticasone propionate and the inhaled long-acting bronchodilator salmeterol.

Large-scale clinical testing has found the drug successful in preventing and treating asthma. Japanese doctors have conducted similar tests and experts say it could be approved here by next year.

"The essence of asthma treatment has changed to preventive treatment," said Mitsuru Adachi, a professor in the medical department at Showa University. "It is impossible (for doctors) to fully control (asthma) just dealing with it when a patient has an attack."

According to a nationwide survey of asthma conducted in 2000, 50 percent of both child and adult asthmatics reported that they had experienced symptoms at daytime in the month prior to the poll.

Forty percent had experienced nighttime symptoms and 30 percent of adults and 53 percent of children had missed school or work that year.

The survey found that the worker absence rate is about 1.8 times higher and children's school absence rate is about 1.2 times higher than in Europe, where asthma is considered relatively controlled.