Sen. Warren attacks GSK’s decision to shift inhaler from brand to authorized generic

GSK’s de­ci­sion to switch pa­tients from its brand-name Flovent in­haler to an au­tho­rized gener­ic is an “in­sid­i­ous” tac­tic that “may cause mil­lions of chil­dren” to lose ac­cess to their asth­ma and al­ler­gy med­ica­tion, Sen. Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D-MA) said in a let­ter to the com­pa­ny re­leased on Mon­day.

The move by GSK in Oc­to­ber to dis­con­tin­ue Flovent came just pri­or to the end of the Med­ic­aid re­bate cap in Jan­u­ary, which ef­fec­tive­ly would have forced GSK to pay Med­ic­aid for cov­er­ing the in­haler be­cause the re­bates were so high.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.