Pulling Flovent from the market in 2024 resulted in GSK profits and harm to pediatric asthma patients, according to a US Senate investigation reported by CNN.
A US Senate investigation into GSK’s 2024 discontinuation of the asthma inhaler Flovent alleges the company profited from the move while many pediatric patients were harmed, according to CNN.
US Senator Maggie Hassan told CNN that the drugmaker profited from the Flovent withdrawal and the switch to an authorized generic. At the same time, the drug’s discontinuation resulted in a 20% decline in the use of inhaled corticosteroids among asthmatic children and a concurrent 17.5% increase in asthma-related hospitalizations, according to details of the Senate investigation reported by CNN.
CNN reports the discontinuation happened after legislation would have required GSK to lower the cost of the drug or pay rebates to Medicaid. Instead, it removed Flovent from the market in 2024 and made available a “copycat” generic drug at a higher cost and reduced insurance coverage, according to the Senate report.
According to a Dec 2023 report from NPR, a GSK spokesperson said pulling Flovent was done to replace it with generic versions “to provide patients in the US with potentially lower cost alternatives of these medically important products.”
But CNN reporting says GSK would have had to pay an estimated $367 million dollars in rebates to Medicaid in 2024 as a result of its price increases on Flovent. Instead, CNN reports, Medicaid paid $550 million that year for the authorized generic version of Flovent, which wasn’t subject to the same financial penalties.
In March 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the HHS Principal Deputy Inspector General to investigate 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 move cost Medicaid nearly $1 billion in 2024 and made inhalers inaccessible for children.
A year after the Flovent exit, data published in April 2025 by JAMA Network Open found reduced inhaled corticosteroid use among pediatric asthma patients who previously used Flovent, with many quitting their medications altogether. According to that study, asthmatic kids using Flovent-only experienced a 6.0-percentage-point greater increase in the probability of having no inhaled steroid dispensing.
In June 2025, Senator Hassan launched the investigation into GSK, alleging:
After its discontinuation, GSK worked with a different company, Prasco Laboratories, to distribute the same inhaler under a different name – which not only created a greater expense for many patients, but also allowed GSK to avoid an estimated $367.6 million in rebates to Medicaid in 2024 alone.
Just two weeks ago, March 4, 2026, the FDA announced it had approved the first generic generic Flovent HFA (fluticasone propionate) inhalation aerosol for asthma in patients aged 4 years and older. The approval was granted to Glenmark Specialty SA, a Swiss-based subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.
Senator Hassan implied that the timing of the approval wasn’t a coincidence.
“GSK has abandoned its monopoly over the drug and is now allowing a lower-cost generic competitor to enter the market. The new FDA-approved generic — approved just days before the release of Hassan’s report — will mean that the nearly 5 million children with asthma in the United States will soon have access to a more affordable version of this medication,” a statement from Hassan’s office said.
Hassan doesn’t want other companies to maneuver around the law and “game the system” the way GSK did. “We’re working in a bipartisan way to close this loophole,” Senator Hassan told CNN.
“GSK was the only company to decide to take a life-saving medication off the shelves with almost no notice, make a special deal with another manufacturer so that they could continue to charge what they wanted to for a ‘copycat’ drug, and disrupt the care and really harm the health of children all around the country,” Senator Hassan told CNN.
Following the discontinuation, authorized generics for Flovent HFA and Flovent Diskus were made available by GSK via a Prasco Laboratories, but the Senate report says, “the company did acknowledge that only around half of commercially-insured patients receive coverage for the authorized generic without prior authorization, compared to the roughly 75% of commercially-insured patients who had received coverage for Flovent prior to the discontinuation.”
The news outlet spoke with Jackie Vakil, a parent of an asthmatic child who relied on Flovent and whose condition deteriorated following the withdrawal.
Vakil asked: “Where was the consideration for the children in this decision making? Is money worth more than these kids that rely on the medication?”
A GSK spokesperson obfuscated in a statement issued to CNN, saying the company is “strongly committed” to making sure children have access to the drugs they need.
Read the full report from Senator Hassan’s office here. [PDF]
