[Milestones in inhalation therapy of airway diseases].

Inhalation is the preferred route for the application of drugs in the management of airway diseases. Therefore it was aimed at developing drugs suitable for inhalation. An important step was the introduction of the short- and long-acting beta 2-agonists and of a new generation of anticholinergics with longer duration of action. Most important was the development of inhaled glucocorticoids allowing good asthma control without relevant side effects even in a long run. Furthermore, the devices for drug application have been improved, and CFCs were substituted by HFAs.