Have Asthma Drugs Been Stopped? Philadelphia Patients Are in Desperation

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In January, Media resident Jacqueline Vakil needed a refill for her 4-year-old son’s asthma medication, Flovent. She couldn’t get it because drugmaker GSK stopped making the popular inhaler. Her insurer doesn’t cover the alternative medication her doctor suggested.

Meanwhile, her son James was waking up at night with a cough. She tried Vicks VapoRub, a humidifier and the steam from a hot shower to help soothe his deep cough.

“He couldn’t sleep at night because of his cough and that’s when it got to the point where I was constantly on the phone with our doctor trying to find a replacement,” she said. “He was going to school and his school was telling me he also had a constant cough.”

Vakil spent hours on the phone with the insurance company, the pharmacy and their doctor for seven weeks. The insurance company recommended medications that didn’t work for his son because they required specific breathing techniques that he couldn’t learn at age 4.

“The whole process was frustrating because I felt helpless,” she said.

After weeks, his son’s doctor, pediatrician Joannie Yeh of Nemours Children’s Health, gave the pharmacy her cell phone number, and they found a medication that worked for James and was covered by insurance.

“It’s really scary and really frustrating when you know that our patients … can take a few days to a week to get the medications … if everything goes well,” Yeh said. “And of course, the parents are working too, so it’s not like they can spend all day getting the medications and making phone calls.”