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CNN VALUES YOUR FEEDBACK 1. How relevant is this ad to you? 2. Did you encounter any technical issues? No Video player was slow to load content Video content never loaded Ad froze or did not finish loading Video content did not start after ad Audio on ad was too loud Other issues Ad never loaded Ad prevented/slowed the page from loading Content moved around while ad loaded Ad was repetitive to ads I've seen previously Other issues Cancel Submit Thank You! Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much appreciated. Close Ad Feedback Close icon Health Life, But Better Fitness Food Sleep Mindfulness Relationships More Life, But Better Fitness Food Sleep Mindfulness Relationships Watch Listen Live TV Sign in My Account * Settings * Topics You Follow * Sign Out Your CNN account Sign in to your CNN account Sign in My Account * Settings * Topics You Follow * Sign Out Your CNN account Sign in to your CNN account -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Live TV Listen Watch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edition US International Arabic Español Edition * US * International * Arabic * Español -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Life, But Better Fitness Food Sleep Mindfulness Relationships Follow CNN * * * * * -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * US * Crime + Justice * Energy + Environment * Extreme Weather * Space + Science * World * Africa * Americas * Asia * Australia * China * Europe * India * Middle East * United Kingdom * Politics * SCOTUS * Congress * Facts First * 2024 Elections * Business * Tech * Media * Calculators * Video * Markets * Pre-markets * After-Hours * Market Movers * Fear & Greed * World Markets * Investing * Markets Now * Before the Bell * Nightcap * Opinion * Political Op-Eds * Social Commentary * Health * Life, But Better * Fitness * Food * Sleep * Mindfulness * Relationships * Entertainment * Movies * Television * Celebrity * Tech * Innovate * Gadget * Foreseeable Future * Mission: Ahead * Upstarts * Work Transformed * Innovative Cities * Style * Arts * Design * Fashion * Architecture * Luxury * Beauty * Video * Travel * Destinations * Food & Drink * Stay * Videos * Sports * Pro Football * College Football * Basketball * Baseball * Soccer * Olympics * Hockey * Watch * Live TV * CNN Headlines * CNN Shorts * Shows A-Z * CNN10 * CNN Max * CNN TV Schedules * Listen * CNN 5 Things * Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta * The Assignment with Audie Cornish * One Thing * Tug of War * CNN Political Briefing * The Axe Files * All There Is with Anderson Cooper * All CNN Audio podcasts * CNN Underscored * Electronics * Fashion * Beauty * Health & Fitness * Home * Reviews * Deals * Money * Gifts * Travel * Outdoors * Pets * CNN Store * Coupons * Target * Kohl’s * Wayfair * Chewy * Shein * Weather * Climate * Storm Tracker * Wildfire Tracker * Video * Ukraine-Russia War * Israel-Hamas War * About CNN * Photos * Investigations * CNN Profiles * CNN Leadership * CNN Newsletters * Work for CNN Watch now: 'The Whole Story' "The Playing Field: The Battle Over Transgender Athletes" goes inside the community that's at the center of a culture war ‘A HUGE SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM’: DOCTORS WARN ABOUT ASTHMA INHALER SWITCH COMING IN JANUARY By Meg Tirrell, CNN 6 minute read Updated 8:47 PM EST, Thu December 28, 2023 Link Copied! Follow: Chronic diseases See all topics Flovent will no longer be manufactured starting January 1 and an identical generic version will be available. Patients may need a new prescription or confirm insurance coverage. Martin Shields/Alamy CNN — Starting January 1, a drug that thousands of patients depend on to help them breathe will disappear from pharmacy shelves, and doctors are concerned patients may have delays switching to alternatives and getting them covered by insurance. Manufacturer GSK has said it’s discontinuing the branded asthma inhaler Flovent, and instead is making an “authorized generic” version, which is identical but without the same branding. Doctor pediatrician injecting making vaccine to little african girl in medical clinic. Nurse applying medical patch after injection. Inside Creative House/iStockphoto/Getty Images With a new Covid-19 variant on the rise, here’s how to stay safe this holiday season Physicians who treat patients with asthma say the authorized generic will work just as well as the branded drug, but it doesn’t appear to be covered as widely by insurers. That may mean patients will have to obtain new prescriptions and sort out coverage hurdles at the height of respiratory virus season. Ad Feedback “This medication has been the most commonly used inhaled medication for the past 25 or 30 years,” said Dr. Robyn Cohen, a pediatric pulmonologist at Boston Medical Center. “It’s the one that, overwhelmingly, pediatricians reach for when they decide that their patient needs a daily preventive medication. … The fact that it’s being discontinued is going to be a huge shock to the system for patients, for families and for doctors.” Doctors are urging patients to take action now to ensure they’ve got their medicine heading into the new year and advocacy groups have been trying to get the word out. But the story of why Flovent is disappearing, and the lack of insurance coverage for its ostensibly identical replacement, touches on some of the most complex facets of American health care and drug pricing. MAJOR CHANGE TO MEDICAID’S DRUG PROGRAM A spokeswoman for GSK said the company is making the change “as part of our commitment to be ambitious for patients.” She noted the company introduced the authorized generics of Flovent HFA, an inhalation aerosol, and Flovent Diskus, an inhalation powder, in May 2022 and October 2023, and that, subsequently, it would discontinue manufacturing the branded versions in the United States on January 1, 2024. The authorized generics, she said, “will provide patients in the US with potentially lower cost alternatives of these medically important products.” "Lead Work Area" Warning sign outside chain link fence in Manhattan, New York City. Busà Photography/Moment RF/Getty Images Cost of lead poisoning drug jumps from $3,500 to $32,000, making it hard for hospitals to stock Experts who follow the industry both on Wall Street and in academia, though, point out GSK is making the switch at precisely the time a change in Medicaid rebates could cause the company to have to pay large penalties because of price increases on Flovent over a number of years. The legal change coming into effect on the first of the year removes a cap on Medicaid rebates that companies are required to pay if they raise the price of medicines more than inflation. “Flovent Diskus has been on the market since 2000 and Flovent HFA since 2004, and GSK has hiked the price on both products numerous times since their launch,” Dr. William Feldman, an associate physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who studies asthma drugs, told CNN. “These are precisely the sort of drugs that will be affected by the new policy eliminating the Medicaid rebate cap.” Until now, the rebates were capped at the total price of a drug, so manufacturers would never pay more than a drug costs back to Medicaid. But under a provision in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, that limit was removed, and starting January 1, 2024, drugs that have been subject to large price increases over time could end up incurring rebates to Medicaid that are greater than their price — meaning pharmaceutical companies would sell those drugs to Medicaid at a loss. “Obviously pharma doesn’t want to be selling at a loss on anything in its portfolio,” said Andrew Baum, an analyst who covers the stock of GSK and other pharmaceutical companies for the financial firm Citi. “So it seeks to evade impact by, one: discontinuation; two: authorized generic.” An authorized generic, Baum told CNN, is viewed as a separate product, “but still enables pharma to collect some of the economics.” Or, put another way, it’s the same product without the branding and also without the history of price increases that would leave the medicine vulnerable to such large rebates to Medicaid. According to data from GoodRx, the price of branded Flovent has gone up about 47% since 2014. Other drugmakers have made changes ahead of the January 1 rebate cap removal as well; makers of insulin this year announced major price cuts — of 70% or more — on their products, a move analysts estimate will save them hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The authorized generic strategy GSK is employing “is a way, broadly speaking, to maximize the profitability of the product in question,” said David Amsellem, a financial analyst who covers the industry at investment firm Piper Sandler. Mike Lawson prepares to inject insulin to control his Type 1 diabetes in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images California moves to cap insulin cost at $30, start manufacturing naloxone He noted there are currently no other generic versions of Flovent approved by the FDA. GSK did price the authorized generic lower than branded Flovent; one package of Flovent HFA in the 110 microgram dose, for example, costs $273.83, about 50% more than the $177.99 wholesale acquisition cost of its authorized generic counterpart, according to prices the company shared with CNN. The wholesale acquisition cost is the price before insurance and rebates. But CVS Caremark, a major pharmacy benefit manager that determines which medicines are covered by insurance for its members, is giving preferential placement to another branded inhaler, Pulmicort, on its formulary, instead of the authorized generic versions of Flovent. “In this case, the authorized generics were more expensive than the brand name medications,” a CVS spokesman told CNN. He noted that’s based on net prices, rather than the wholesale acquisition cost, meaning Pulmicort could be less expensive because of rebates its manufacturer, AstraZeneca, pays to obtain better insurance coverage. ‘THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME OF YEAR’ The fact that insurance plans aren’t broadly covering the authorized generic of Flovent, said BMC’s Cohen, “means that patients are going to need to get a brand new prescription for a completely different medication in the middle of the worst possible time of year, which is the winter respiratory virus season.” Positive COVID-19 self-tests mrs/Moment RF/Getty Images XBB.1.5, BA.2.86, JN.1: How to understand the Covid-19 alphabet soup For patients with persistent asthma, Cohen said, Flovent has been the most commonly used daily preventive anti-inflammatory medication for decades. It shrinks swelling in the airways and reduces the body’s exaggerated response to triggers that make it hard to breathe. During cold and flu season, she said, it becomes even more crucial to have that daily medicine. “Flu, Covid, RSV — all these circulating viruses that are going around right now — are one of the biggest, if not the biggest, triggers for asthma attacks in kids,” Cohen said. “This is what leads to kids being in the emergency room.” Cohen said she’s concerned that patients, as well as physicians and pharmacists, don’t know this change with Flovent is coming, and they need to act now to work out alternatives and determine insurance coverage. GET CNN HEALTH'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. For some groups, the alternatives are more limited. For patients with a more rare inflammatory condition, called eosinophilic esophagitis, Flovent HFA is one of the most commonly prescribed topical steroids, and other medicines don’t have as much data supporting their use in the condition, said Dr. Erin Syverson, an attending physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital. As EoE affects the esophagus, patients swallow the medicine instead of breathing it in, and it can tame the inflammation that can cause pain with swallowing or food getting stuck, requiring procedures to remove it. In kids, Syverson said, EoE can lead to recurrent vomiting, heartburn, belly aches, and trouble making progress starting solid foods, and Flovent can help keep the condition under control. “With the discontinuation coming up, I worry it’s going to just be one more hurdle for this patient population that already has very limited medications available to them,” Syverson told CNN. “I don’t know what January is going to be like, but I’m worried.” CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report. Sponsored Continue watching AI model can predict the recurrence of Crohn's Disease Recommended for you Recommended by Skip Ads by MORE FROM CNN Biden administration delays proposed ban on menthol ... Apr 26, 2024 Cyberattack forces major US health care network to divert ... May 10, 2024 They took blockbuster drugs for weight loss and diabetes. Now ... Jul 25, 2023 Ad Feedback NEWS & BUZZ Schools are bracing for widespread teacher layoffs. 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