What will it mean for asthmatic patients as GSK stops production of Flovent inhalers?

In 2024, users of the well-known corticosteroid inhalers Flovent HFA or Flovent Diskus will have to move to a new medicine to manage their asthma as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the company that makes them has decided to stop its production.

According to GSK, they would instead create an approved generic version using the same device design and composition.

However, physicians are worried about the difficulties patients may encounter in obtaining medication in the event that their insurance companies do not cover the recently approved generics.

“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.

“The fact that it’s being discontinued is going to be a huge shock to the system for patients, for families and for doctors,” Cohen told the outlet.

For some patients, switching to an entirely new product isn’t possible, doctors say.

Alternatives like Arnuity and Qvar, which are now the preferred treatments of some insurance carriers, are not appropriate for children due to the breath capacity needed to dispense the medication, Dr Christopher Oermann said in a Dec 8 news release from the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Both Flovent and the authorised generic can be used by patients 4 years and older, GSK says.