A popular asthma inhaler Flovent has been discontinued, which stopped being produced on January of this year. Flovent is used to treat asthma for adults and children.
Flovent is a inhaled prescription used for patients four years and older that treats long term treatment for asthma. This has been widely popular since the 2000’s.
Flovents manufacturer is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a healthcare company. Their main focus is on developing, and researching new medicines and vaccines. They were the ones to make the final decision to discontinue both versions of the medication. Flovent HFA, Inhalation aerosol, and Flovent Diskus are the three products being discontinued.
To replace this, they have come up with a generic version of this prescription that will have the same benefits as Flovent. The reason for this replacement is because of the Medicaid drug prices.
Some alternatives to Flovent are Arnuity Ellipta which contains the same ingredients as Flovent. Another medication with similar ingredients is ArmonAir Digihaler. Arnuity Ellipta is insured by most Medicare and Insurance plans, but ArmonAir Digihaler is not insured by most.
GlaxoSmithKline has stated that this replacement will provide patients with lower cost than before. But other medical professionals think this could have a negative impact on the patients.
Medical professionals are concerned because some patients might struggle with switching to an alternative version because some insurers only cover some inhalers and this new version some patients’ insurance might not cover.
By next year GSK would have to start paying states higher Medicaid prices if they did not make this change. Flovent increased in price by four percent meaning the price went from $207 to $292.
Although the price is lower than before, patients are having trouble getting this generic inhaler. For the people who got used to taking Flovent inhalers now may not be able to afford the replacement out of pocket. Most insurance companies will not cover the new medication which is leaving these patients with nothing.
Discontiuning Flovent has shocked most doctors and patients because of the popularity it has. As a result patients are now having to figure out if they are going to switch or completely change to a different asthma medication.
