Pulling Flovent from the market in 2024 resulted in GSK earnings and hurt to pediatric bronchial asthma sufferers, based on a US Senate investigation reported by CNN.
A US Senate investigation into GSK’s 2024 discontinuation of the bronchial asthma inhaler Flovent alleges the corporate profited from the transfer whereas many pediatric sufferers have been harmed, based on CNN.
US Senator Maggie Hassan informed CNN that the drugmaker profited from the Flovent withdrawal and the swap to a licensed generic. On the identical time, the drug’s discontinuation resulted in a 20% decline in the usage of inhaled corticosteroids amongst asthmatic kids and a concurrent 17.5% enhance in asthma-related hospitalizations, based on particulars of the Senate investigation reported by CNN.
CNN studies the discontinuation occurred after laws would have required GSK to decrease the price of the drug or pay rebates to Medicaid. As an alternative, it eliminated Flovent from the market in 2024 and made accessible a “copycat” generic drug at the next price and decreased insurance coverage protection, based on the Senate report.
In response to a Dec 2023 report from NPR, a GSK spokesperson mentioned pulling Flovent was completed to exchange it with generic variations “to offer sufferers within the US with doubtlessly decrease price options of those medically essential merchandise.”
However CNN reporting says GSK would have needed to pay an estimated $367 million {dollars} in rebates to Medicaid in 2024 because of its worth will increase on Flovent. As an alternative, CNN studies, Medicaid paid $550 million that 12 months for the approved generic model of Flovent, which wasn’t topic to the identical monetary penalties.
In March 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren requested the HHS Principal Deputy Inspector Common to research GSK’s Flovent withdrawal, accusing it of “outrageous profiteering” and “brazen circumvention of the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARPA’s) Medicaid rebates.” Warren alleged the transfer price Medicaid practically $1 billion in 2024 and made inhalers inaccessible for kids.
A 12 months after the Flovent exit, information printed in April 2025 by JAMA Community Open discovered decreased inhaled corticosteroid use amongst pediatric bronchial asthma sufferers who beforehand used Flovent, with many quitting their medicines altogether. In response to that examine, asthmatic children utilizing Flovent-only skilled a 6.0-percentage-point higher enhance within the chance of getting no inhaled steroid allotting.
In June 2025, Senator Hassan launched the investigation into GSK, alleging:
After its discontinuation, GSK labored with a distinct firm, Prasco Laboratories, to distribute the identical inhaler below a distinct identify – which not solely created a higher expense for a lot of sufferers, but in addition allowed GSK to keep away from an estimated $367.6 million in rebates to Medicaid in 2024 alone.
Simply two weeks in the past, March 4, 2026, the FDA introduced it had accepted the primary generic generic Flovent HFA (fluticasone propionate) inhalation aerosol for bronchial asthma in sufferers aged 4 years and older. The approval was granted to Glenmark Specialty SA, a Swiss-based subsidiary of Glenmark Prescribed drugs.
Senator Hassan implied that the timing of the approval wasn’t a coincidence.
“GSK has deserted its monopoly over the drug and is now permitting a lower-cost generic competitor to enter the market. The brand new FDA-approved generic — accepted simply days earlier than the discharge of Hassan’s report — will imply that the practically 5 million kids with bronchial asthma in the USA will quickly have entry to a extra reasonably priced model of this remedy,” an announcement from Hassan’s workplace mentioned.
Hassan doesn’t need different corporations to maneuver across the legislation and “recreation the system” the best way GSK did. “We’re working in a bipartisan option to shut this loophole,” Senator Hassan informed CNN.
“GSK was the one firm to determine to take a life-saving remedy off the cabinets with nearly no discover, make a particular take care of one other producer in order that they might proceed to cost what they needed to for a ‘copycat’ drug, and disrupt the care and actually hurt the well being of youngsters throughout the nation,” Senator Hassan informed CNN.
Following the discontinuation, approved generics for Flovent HFA and Flovent Diskus have been made accessible by GSK by way of a Prasco Laboratories, however the Senate report says, “the corporate did acknowledge that solely round half of commercially-insured sufferers obtain protection for the approved generic with out prior authorization, in comparison with the roughly 75% of commercially-insured sufferers who had acquired protection for Flovent previous to the discontinuation.”
The information outlet spoke with Jackie Vakil, a dad or mum of an asthmatic little one who relied on Flovent and whose situation deteriorated following the withdrawal.
Vakil requested: “The place was the consideration for the kids on this determination making? Is cash price greater than these children that depend on the remedy?”
A GSK spokesperson obfuscated in an announcement issued to CNN, saying the corporate is “strongly dedicated” to creating certain kids have entry to the medication they want.
Learn the complete report from Senator Hassan’s workplace right here. [PDF]
