Ventolin to stay – but at a price

The asthma drug Ventolin will stay on the market after the Government stops paying for it on July 1, but patients will have to pay about $11 for each puffer.

Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline yesterday announced its intention to continue supplying the drug, used by an estimated 540,000 New Zealanders, despite the switching of state funding to a controversial replacement, Salamol.

"We've had so much feedback from doctors and patients we feel it's important to make Ventolin available," said Glaxo New Zealand's managing director and vice-president, Lisa Bright. If demand ended up being insufficient Glaxo would review the decision.

Ventolin inhalers are expected to retail at pharmacies for $10 to $12. Each contains 200 puffs of medicine - nearly four months' supply for the average user.

Asthmatics yesterday welcomed the decision, but wondered how poor families would find the money.

"I will pay for it myself because it's a product I know and have absolute faith in," said Auckland asthma sufferer Ian Lindsay, 56.

"If I was the Labour Government I would be looking in alarm at the way Pharmac can run roughshod over so many people who aren't in a position to pay $10 or $12."

Some patients already using Salamol inhalers have complained that they clog up and stop working when they need a puff to relieve breathlessness, that the drug helps less than Ventolin or tastes bad.

Pharmac has received 138 complaints by telephone and 40 by email.

Pharmacy Guild president Richard Heslop said many patients had returned Salamol with inhalers to pharmacists in his area, the central North Island, and retaining Ventolin was wise. "A lot of people are fairly emotionally attached to it.

"With the question mark over Salamol, it has made them even more twitchy about [changing]."

The Asthma New Zealand patient-support group fears the number of people dying from asthma attacks will rise because of Salamol's problems.

The group's medical director, Dr Allen Liang, said a case study to be published in Friday's New Zealand Medical Journal by Northland GP Dr Shane Reti would reinforce concerns about Salamol.

Dr Reti would not reveal yesterday what had happened to the patient. "It's an unexpected finding that will require further studies."

Dr Liang said two of his child patients were taken to the Starship hospital after refusing to use Salamol because of its taste. One was treated in the emergency department and the other admitted to a ward overnight. Both recovered, but the cost of an overnight stay would buy one patient Ventolin for several years.

Asthma NZ says its survey of asthmatics and their families, returned by 137 people, shows "massive rejection" of the change to Salamol. Salamol's supplier, Air Flow Products, says it is safe and effective and that blockages can be prevented by washing the plastic inhaler case regularly.

The Health Ministry has commissioned tests by the Institute of Environmental Science & Research and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration to check on the dosage and blocking of Salamol inhalers.

Pharmac expects to decide this month, after seeing the results, whether to delay the switch to funding Salamol, which is $2 cheaper than the Ventolin-maker's price of $6 and is expected to save taxpayers about $1.7 million over 18 months.