Thread: Obama's war on asthmatics

Originally Posted by Jefe

Why don't they just change to a different propellant?



Primatene Mist With Chlorofluorocarbons No Longer Available After Dec. 31, 2011

Problem solved. Any questions?

More expensive and requires a prescription. Sort of basic info for this discussion. Any questions?

Originally Posted by CharlesDavenport

More expensive and requires a prescription. Sort of basic info for this discussion. Any questions?

See above.

Originally Posted by hairballxavier

Primatene Mist With Chlorofluorocarbons No Longer Available After Dec. 31, 2011

The Obama administration continues their war against the American people by pulling the only OTC asthma inhaler off the shelves.

Thousands of people use Primatine to instantly stop acute asthma attacks. And now to get an inhaler for asthma they will have to pay a doctor and buy a prescription inhaler that costs significantly more than Primatine.

What a bunch of fucking assholes. This decision could cause many Americans to die from asthma attacks.

Primatine is also the cause of a lot of deaths on young people. Especially those in athletics. I used to use Primatine when I was a kid. I had allergy-related asthma. The doctor took me off it as soon as he found out my mother was gething for me ans switched me out to Proventil.

The two most used inhalers used today are Ventilin and Proventil and they are very cheap since they have been generics for a long time. In fact, on a prescription plan they are cheaper to acquire than Primatine.

Cry me a river. This is a non-issue.

http://drmintz.blogspot.com/2011/03/...tene-mist.html

However, the loss of Primatene Mist is a good thing in my opinion. Primatene Mist is epinephrine. It is a bronchodilator, which is why it relieves the symptoms of asthma. However, it is quite dangerous, especially without a prescription. First, it is not just a beta 2 agonist like albuterol which works almost exclusively on beta receptors in the lungs. It also aftects beta 1 receptors in the heart and alpha receptors in the blood vessels. The primary use of epinephrine is medicine today is to give it to patients who are a risk of immediate death in order to restart their hearts. In addition, having any bronchodilator, even albuterol, over the counter, is a bad thing. We know that increased albuterol use is associated with increased ER visits, hospitalizations and even death. But at least we can monitor albuterol use, because it must be prescribed by a physician. We have no way of knowing if a patient is taking too much Primatene mist until they are dead.

Originally Posted by Jefe

Why don't they just change to a different propellant?



Primatene Mist With Chlorofluorocarbons No Longer Available After Dec. 31, 2011

Problem solved. Any questions?

Originally Posted by Jefe

Further, here's a statement from the makers of Primatene Mist:



http://www.primatene.com/doc/Primate...nt-9-30-09.pdf

Any other questions?

Well, that's about all I needed to see. Thanks for taking a minute to actually check things out instead of going on a hysterical rant, Jefe.

Originally Posted by Speakeasy

Well, that's about all I needed to see. Thanks for taking a minute to actually check things out instead of going on a hysterical rant, Jefe.

It actually took about twice as long as that (a whole 2 minutes), but who's counting?

Originally Posted by CharlesDavenport

This illustrates a number of things - the effect of ceding matters environmental to an international body, the additional costs that these things inevitably have on the most vulnerable (just go get a prescription, don't worry about the cost), and the ridiculous power an un-elected body has (EPA) over our daily lives.

I agree wholeheartedly. However the cost isn't the only problem with the prescription alternatives. Another serious problem with them is that they use a different active ingredient that simply does not work for everyone.

Primatene has been so popular for so long because it actually works. And not only that, it works almost instantly.

Originally Posted by lutherf

Well....the FDA is part of HHS which is an Executive branch agency so the claim of the Obama administration making this decision is pretty much spot on. I doubt that Obama himself made this decision but such a claim was never really made by the OP.

Well, we already know Obama's personal opinion on the issue....

Errr, well... sort of?

YouTube - ‪Obama Asthma Teleprompter Gaffe‬‏

Originally Posted by Jefe

Why don't they just change to a different propellant?



Primatene Mist With Chlorofluorocarbons No Longer Available After Dec. 31, 2011

Problem solved. Any questions?

It may not be that simple a fix. Perhaps the testing that Primatine did suggests that CFC's are the best and safest propellant for their particular formula of the medicine. It would be stupid of them not to change if it was something that easy.

Many years ago I was in the waterbed business. We did a brisk business in repair kits. I found that some glues worked much better than others although they were all sold as vinyl repair kits. One day I happened to be on the phone with a manufacturer of a particular brand of adhesive and asked him about this. He informed me that there were several types of ketone used in various brands. Some worked better with vinyl while others worked better with rubber but that many manufacturers tried to split the difference and get something that worked kind of well with both vinyl and rubber so that they wouldn't have to produce too many different products.

What I'm getting at is that just because something will work doesn't mean that it's the best solution and a business should always look for the best solutions and then try to figure out a way to get those solutions to market in the most effective manner. Primatine isn't being discontinued because the FDA has a problem with the product. It's being discontinued because the climate nazi's are demanding a ban on CFC's. This change is likely to make the product either more expensive or no longer viable to produce. In either case it is the people who rely on this for medical reasons that lose and it is prima fascia evidence of part of the reason that health care costs have exploded over the years.

Originally Posted by lutherf

It may not be that simple a fix. Perhaps the testing that Primatine did suggests that CFC's are the best and safest propellant for their particular formula of the medicine. It would be stupid of them not to change if it was something that easy.

See post # 16 above.

It may not be easy for them to change, but they are working on it.

Ok, perhaps I missed it in the links and conversation here but do we have any direct evidence that Obama got bored one night and said "fuck the asthmatics, kill off chlorofluorocarbons used in inhalers?" I really doubt that anyone in our government had the bright idea to give the industry zero notice, with the intention to harm, and start removing products asthmatics people need. If anything, the industry was asleep at the wheel in providing an alternative post the notice that this was going to occur. Obama (assuming anyone can prove he had any influence on this at all) did not draft this last night.

Damn, twice in one day defending Obama. I may be getting sick or something.

Originally Posted by Jefe

See post # 16 above.

It may not be easy for them to change, but they are working on it.

"Working on it" isn't the same as "did it" and there lies the opportunity for the FDA to exercise discretion. They chose not to and the result is that this particular product will become unavailable not because it's medically dangerous but because an outside special interest has determined that it presents some kind of global threat.

Show me a study which verifies that the threat of CFC's in Primatine is liable to cause so much damage to humanity that it outweighs the benefits that current users get from the medication and I might buy into your position.

Originally Posted by lutherf

"Working on it" isn't the same as "did it" and there lies the opportunity for the FDA to exercise discretion. They chose not to and the result is that this particular product will become unavailable not because it's medically dangerous but because an outside special interest has determined that it presents some kind of global threat.

Show me a study which verifies that the threat of CFC's in Primatine is liable to cause so much damage to humanity that it outweighs the benefits that current users get from the medication and I might buy into your position.

I don't really have a position to "buy into". The company's position is that they plan to have a CFC-free version of Primatene Mist available by December 31, 2011.

I can certainly see your point, though. It would have been nice if this one product was given a pass, seeing as so many people apparently depend on it. Hell, I've used it in the past. I quit smoking a couple of years ago, and while my lungs were going through the healing process, I experienced a few weeks of difficult breathing. Primatene Mist was a big help... but to be honest, the Primatene tablets would have worked fine for me. And let's be completely honest here: people with severe asthma aren't using Primatene Mist, they're using prescription inhalers.

Until Armstrong Pharmaceuticals fails to deliver on a replacement by December 31st, this thread is kinda pointless.

Originally Posted by lutherf

"Working on it" isn't the same as "did it" and there lies the opportunity for the FDA to exercise discretion. They chose not to and the result is that this particular product will become unavailable not because it's medically dangerous but because an outside special interest has determined that it presents some kind of global threat.

Show me a study which verifies that the threat of CFC's in Primatine is liable to cause so much damage to humanity that it outweighs the benefits that current users get from the medication and I might buy into your position.

They're not specifically targeting Primatine here, it's part of an international effort to get read of the use of CFC's and other ozone depleting substances in every product. This plan has been in effect since 1989, due to the Montreal Protocol. Alternatives and replacements for CFC's have been researched and implemented for the last 40 years, so asking them to find a replacement now is hardly springing anything on them. Why, it's almost as if someone needed to light a fire under their ass to replace something that they knew was going to need replacing for a few decades now. If the makers of Primatine had any sort of foresight, they would've known this day was coming for years and taken the necessary steps to keep their produce on the shelves long ago.