Doctors Express ‘Huge Shock’ as GSK Pulls Popular Asthma Inhalers From Market
Biopharma corporation GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) will cease the manufacture and sale of two extremely popular branded asthma inhalers beginning next year in favor of producing generic versions, triggering concerns about insurance coverage and product access. Effective January 1, GSK will discontinue its asthma inhaler Flovent HFA and inhalation powder Flovent Diskus. Instead, the company will be offering generic versions of these products at a lower cost. The generic version of Flovent HFA was launched in May 2022. Discontinuation of Flovent HFA has raised concerns among medical experts as this is happening amid the respiratory virus season. Many insurers may not provide coverage for the generic version of the product. “This medication has been the most commonly used inhaled medication for the past 25 or 30 years,” Dr. Robyn Cohen, a pediatric pulmonologist at Boston Medical Center, told CNN . “It’s the one that, overwhelmingly, pediatricians reach for when they decide that their p...