"Catch 22" for Asthma Sufferers - New Inhaler Hits the Market

For all those asthma sufferers out there, some major changes are beginning to take place in regards to your prescriptions. Due to the signing of an international treaty called the Montreal Protocol, the United States along with 185 other countries agreed to discontinue all chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) inhalers and replace them with hydroflouroalkane (HFA) inhalers. Pharmaceutical companies will stop selling CFC inhalers on January 1, 2008.

CFC is one of the main ingredients in albuterol inhalers that relieve the effects of asthma. They say HFA is an effective replacement for the much depended on CFC inhalers. However, for patients who have already been forced to switch to the new type ingredients, it seems the new-age inhalers do not give relief like the CFC inhalers do.

The Montreal Protocol was created in accordance to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) attempt to slow the process of damage to the ozone layer. The list of the elimination damaging products began in 1978. The CFC is the latest product on the list to be discontinued. While HFA inhalers spew slower puffs of medication, Dr. Rachel L. Miller, an assistant professor of clinical medicine and public health at Columbia University assures patients with asthma, "they are the same medication".

My husband depends on CFC inhalers to get through a day of rigorous work. He is a non-smoker who suffers from severe asthma. On his last prescription he was given the HFA inhaler (ProAir). He continued having a breathing problem following a two puff treatment. I do not know if Dr. Miller suffers from limited breathing capabilities due to asthma, but it does not seem to work as well as the doctor promotes, according to my husband.

The cost of the new inhaler for the uninsured is $26 above the CFC inhaler. Our last purchase with insurance was $3 more for the HFA than the CFC inhaler. The new inhaler also holds half the amount of the more dependable, less expensive "medically essential" product.