The EPA recently required that all aerosols, including asthma inhalers, have an "environmentally friendly" formulation. As a result, there are no longer any generic albuterol inhalers available, only brand-name inhalers (see list below). All of these inhalers have albuterol as the active ingredient and are appropriate for use as a rescue inhaler for asthma.

In the past, if your doctor wrote your prescription for a brand-name inhaler but allowed substitution, you would usually get a generic albuterol inhaler, which was less expensive than any of the brand names. Now, since no generic inhalers are available, you will get a brand-name inhaler instead. Whether you get a preferred (Tier 2) or nonpreferred (Tier 3) inhaler depends on how your doctor writes your prescription.

The Tier 3 inhalers listed below are all subject to the Therapeutic Interchange Program (TIP); see here for more information on how that works. If you want to make sure you get the least expensive inhaler available, have your doctor write the prescription for a Tier 2 inhaler and allow substitution. This means you'll get a Tier 2 inhaler now, and a generic inhaler once they become available. There is currently no expected availability date for an environmentally friendly generic albuterol inhaler.

If, on the other hand, you definitely want one of the Tier 3 inhalers, make sure your doctor writes the prescription specifically for that drug, and does NOT allow substitution (dispense as written).

Please send us a message if you have any questions about this issue.

NOTE: Some local pharmacies might continue to have back stock of the generic inhalers until they run out. However, UMP's mail-order pharmacy, Wellpartner, no longer has any generic inhalers in stock.