An effort to return remaining units of Primatene Mist epinephrine inhalers to the market failed in the US House of Representatives on December 12, 2012 by a vote of 229-182. Primatene Mist, a CFC-propelled MDI manufactured by Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, was the only over the counter asthma inhaler available in the US until it was removed from the market in accordance with the Montreal Protocol.
The bill, titled the “Asthma Inhalers Relief Act of 2012,” was sponsored by Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas. Amphastar had promised to donate net profits from the sale of the remaining inhalers to charity. Congress had previously voted down a bill to ban enforcement of the phase out of the product.
July 2012 hearings on the bill featured testimony from Monica Kraft, President of the American Thoracic Society; Edward Kerwin, Senior Medical Director of the Allergy & Asthma Center of Southern Oregon; and Chris Ward, former Chairman of the board of directors of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Read the bill.
Watch Rep. Burgess’s statement:
