{"id":47919,"date":"2026-05-25T05:47:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/47919\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:47:03","slug":"senator-asthma-patients-suffered-as-gsk-pursued-egregious-price-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/47919\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator: Asthma patients suffered as GSK pursued &#8216;egregious&#8217; price hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After GSK replaced a popular asthma inhaler with an identical product at a much higher price in order to avoid paying Medicaid rebates, many families reported substantial financial and treatment problems, according to a new report from a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n<p>The issue began two years ago, when the drug company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2024\/01\/05\/flovent-asthma-inhaler-gsk-authorized-generic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discontinued<\/a> both versions of its popular inhaler \u2014 Flovent HFA, an inhalation aerosol, and Flovent Diskus, an inhalation powder\u00a0\u2014 and continued selling only a so-called authorized generic version, which is essentially the same product sold under a private label. This version was launched in May 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, generics sell for less than brand-name drugs, but this situation did not follow the usual pattern. And the report from Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) found that, thanks to its maneuver, GSK set in motion a series of changes that prompted many health plans and pharmacy benefit managers to create barriers to access.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After GSK replaced a popular asthma inhaler with an identical product at a much higher price in order&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20784],"tags":[2715,20785,2029,2010,8066,20102],"class_list":["post-47919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gsk","tag-drug-pricing","tag-gsk","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-policy","tag-public-health","tag-stat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116633642151920025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}