FDA banning Primatene Mist inhalers for asthma

September 24th, 2011 by Roger Caldwell | Permalink

Albuterol inhalers like this one will soon be the only choice for asthmatics. Via Google Images

People who use Primatene Mist to control their asthama symptoms may want to build a stockpile of the over-the-counter medicine now or start looking for other treatments.

The FDA issued a reminder that the drug will no longer be available after Dec. 31 due to the fact that the inhaler it uses as a delivery system uses chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Those compounds have been shown to damage the ozone layer and are being banned as part of an international agreement, the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer.

In 2006, an FDA advisory panel voted 11-7 that Primatene Mist , which was under scrutiny because of the CFC issue, didn’t serve an essential health need. The FDA said it set the phase-out date and notified the public in November 2008. The company (currently Amphaster, although it was Wyeth in 2006) has included information about Primatene Mist’s availability both on its website and product packaging. Wyeth said in 2006 that about 3 million people in the U.S. used Primatene Mist each year.

Dan Dischner, an Amphastar spokesman, says that the company’s subsidiary, Armstrong Pharmaceuticals, is currently in talks with the FDA about introducing a new version of the drug using a different propellant, but that won’t happen before the ban on the current drug kicks in. In the meantime, the FDA says there are many prescription choices for asthma, including albuterol inhalers.

Source: blogs.wsj.com/health

Filed under: Health
Tags: albuterol, Amphaster, asthma, CFCs, chlorofluorocarbons, Dan Dischner, fda, inhaler, Primatene Mist, wyeth

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TomS

It figures… Obama wants everyone possible to have to see a doctor just to get an inhaler. The CFC thing is a joke… really, how much of that is released annually from inhalers? A real piddly amount! No, this isn’t about health. It’s about ensnaring everyone into the HATED Obamacare.
carolyn aydt

I have been using primetene inhaler for 30 years it is the only thing that works and dosen’t make me sick. I am in a panic i don’t know how i can live and function without it. It has saved my life many a time. Please stop this ban how can this happen People with asthma will be dying just like in times past. The emergency rooms will be filled. Yhis is so cruel. I have stocked up on alot and it cost me money i don’t have.
Roger Caldwell

Hopefully the manufacturer can get that new version cleared with the FDA quickly so there won’t be too much lag time after the ban takes place.
kathy

this is cruel!! all of a sudden they ban the product when there are no other substitutes for over the counter such as the inhaler.
I agree with Tom S in the comment, the release of CFC to the air is bar none! It goes into our bodies not in the air! Dont make sense!
What are we supposed to do now? Oh wait, we have to see a doctor, then get the prescription, really bad when someone is not INSURED!!
Kyra

As someone who does care about the environment, I am disgusted. THIS IS A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION… this is not ripping apart the ozone layer. Wanna know what is? Ask the government, ask the giant corporations who play puppet masters to our governments. Someone getting an over the counter inhaler because they have no other option is doing nothing wrong, and the impact seems so damn miniscule. Why don’t you go after products that aren’t health related?

My mom has been trying to breathe and we’ve been going back and forth for two days boiling vicks and water because we cannot afford health care, let alone anything else, and this is all she has. It’s barely doing anything, every 15-30 minutes the bowl has to be reheated just so she can breathe. It is 6:30 am and, again, she has not slept. I am so scared that she is going to die, this is f***ing ridiculous. I’ve been up all night trying to find techniques and alternatives… I live in a single parent household and am a minor; money does not grow out of our a**.
Dennis Froelich

Very typical of the government! There will be a lot of people who will be dying because of this BULLSHIT! I have used this product for 24 years.
David B

Just when I thought I heard every corruption and abomination, I hear if this. I came to the conclusion that this government is hopelessly beyond redemption. In the same way that the collapse of the communist govt of russia in the early 1990s was the best thing for the country and the only way that things could have changed,– I’m beginning to think that a collapse of the current U.S. Govt may be the best thing for this country in the long term and the only way to get rid of the current power structure (pharma cartel, big energy, banking, industrial military complex) and change things for the better — actually have a republican form of govt of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Church

Those of you whining and crying that Obama somehow did this, read the article and please, please please learn how time flows in this universe.

FDA Advisory Panel made the recommendation in 2006.

Public was notified of their decision in November of 2008.

This means the decision to end the production of Primatene was made BEFORE Obama was voted into office.

This means that it was during BUSH JR.’s time that this hackjob of a decision was made. Republican governance, ladies and gentlemen!
http://none Holli Gertman

None of the major phamacies was notified in my area by the FDA, call and complain to the FDA phone number is 888-463-6332 They are full of bull we should all ban together and file a lawsuit against them for pain and suffering.
James H.

Here we go again. The morons in power are showing just how *$#@*+@!! stupid they really are. I am so sick and tired of these overpaid idiots. I guess is shows how dumb and out of touch the blood suckers are.

I find it hard to believe that the amount of CFC expelled from a puff of an inhaler is that dangerous. Does the FDA and the suck head congress realize that when they are used….it goes into the persons lungs? How much escapes? Not much I wager!

I have many friends who do not have health insurance because they are unemployed or working several part time jobs. The inhalers that the FDA are pushing are bloody expensive. My friend has two kids who need them and the co-pay is $35 a whack. Just think of the cost if your not insured.

This is the kind of crap that makes me very mad. I think about the people I know that this will impact. Then I consider how many people I don’t know that this will affect. It is time we the people start standing up to these overpaid leaches. Vote every incumbent (each party) out of office.

God forbid anyone dies because of this totaly retarded ban. If any of my friends or family are seriously ill or die because of this….Im going to sue the living hell out of the FDA and anyone associated with this ban.

Sorry if I seem out of control but this is messing with peoples health and well being.
dan

i can’t freaking breathe. all i need is a few puffs on this and I will be fine. I haven’t used it for years but for some reason today I am wheezing. what i supposed to pay over a grand to go to the emergency center when i could just puffs on this a couple of times and be fine. this is complete bs!
http://twitter.com/Anonyville Anonymous One

Oh shut up. I dont care who passed it. They pulled Primatene with no alternative for those whom are unemployed, uninsured, and have a life threatening disease. Obama could have stopped this. I dont want to hear the dont blame Obama bit. Bush isn’t in Office Obama is and he needs to step his a55 up to the plate before we start dieing. Personally, I feel the FDA people who voted for this should be strangled to death. If Obama does nothing to save us Asthmatics he should be strangled to death too.
http://twitter.com/Anonyville Anonymous One

A Asthmatic can die in a matter of hours. I have had Asthma all my life and have suffered 3 heart attacks from the strain of asthma attacks on my heart. This is literally a death sentence for quite a few of asthmatics including myself. I am now on the 5th day of having an untreated asthma attack. This is murder.
http://profile.yahoo.com/HQ22TTE2WGK5XCKWY3G4P46S44 Brian

i have used this product for 25 years, i am scared and dont know what i am going to do when i run out? is there something that works or is simulair to priamtene mist inhalers? please help me! brianhearl@ymail.com
dairymaster

From my experience the new HFA inhalers aren’t as effective as the CFC
inhalers. First of all the new inhalers cost 3 times the CFC inhalers
did, are half the size, don’t deliver enough medication as quickly or
effective as the old ones and it plain tastes like I’m licking a gas pump. It would be
nice if politicians would stop using environmental issues as an excuse
to get people to purchase expensive prescriptions, cause if the
environment truly were its concern, they would’ve banned vehicles,
aircraft, buses, certain factories & the list goes on, which spew out more hazards into the
atmosphere than an inhaler ever could. The puff from an inhaler is more
like a fart in the long run. In the future, lawmakers will probably
set to make everyone to take pharmaceutical grade beano to protect the
environment. What hogwash.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cheney-Watch/1494575348 Cheney Watch

I completly agree with the Anonymous below in that…

Asthmatic lungs don’t have the luxury of arguing red v blue, R v D…and frankly this partisanship is making this even harder to get fixed. GOP rail against EPA all the time thus…they’re effectively mute now when asking for EPA to hear them or be given credibility. DNC is being proEPA enviro without understanding this reality too. “just get a prescription”, has been barked over at us dozens of times.

So, really, please…everyone drop the partisan garbage so we can find some air for the asthmatics who need this product right now. Then we can get back to tribal nonsense later, when we can breathe.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cheney-Watch/1494575348 Cheney Watch

It isn’t time to play this partisan crap. This is making it hard to get both sides to approve a suspension of this ban. When you play this game, remember, it can mute your voice later. DeMint was right to ask for a moratorium on this ban with amendment…but he rails against EPA all the time so he’s now ignored. Likewise, Democrats rail on with their tribalism too.

SO CUT THE TRIBAL NONSENSE WHILE WE HELP THE ASTHMATICS!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=748819808 Paula Hall Lords-Kenny

I found this, I did not start the page but.. maybe if enough of us “like” it, it will get media attention or something that will help the cause

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Back-Primatene-Mist/256149177788015

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