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Apr 11, 2007 9:03 pm US/Mountain
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Asthma Sufferers Get Hit In The Pocket Book
by Suzanne McCarroll
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Thousands of asthma sufferers are getting a shock at the pharmacy counter. A common asthma drug is no longer available as a generic and the cost of refills is skyrocketing.
The common asthma medication, albuterol, comes in an inhaler. The generic version can cost as little as $6. But older type inhalers are bad for the environment, so the Food and Drug Administration has banned them.
"The problem with these is that they have florocarbons," Dr. Barry Make from National Jewish Hospital said "And they destroy the environment."
Instead, pharmacists are filling prescriptions with three new inhalers that are safer for the environment, but much more expensive.
Doctors predict Americans will spend an extra $1 billion a year buying the new inhalers.
"Every patient that comes in is worried about price," Make said. "Even if patients have a prescription plan, they have to pay higher and higher co-pays with their prescriptions."
The higher cost could be a problem for millions of asthma suffers. There isn't going to be another generic version of albuterol available until 2012.
Dr. Make also said that he's getting complaints that the new inhalers don't work as well. He said it's important to know that the medicine is exactly the same as what's in the old inhalers; it's just being delivered in a new way.
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