Pharmacy on Web

11 December 2008

Originally there was one fully subsidised Salbutamol inhaler in New Zealand known as Ventolin^TM , manufactured by Glaxosmithkline but now asthmatics can look forward to 3 versions of their Reliever puffers in the NZ pharmacy market.
Ventolin is no longer a fully funded product in NZ, you can expect to pay an extra $4 or more depending on which pharmacy you go to per inhaler on top of the government charges.
The 2 current generic salbutamol is Respigen^TM and Salamol^TM , these are fully subsidised by the NZ government. Air Flow products Ltd markets Salamol^TM and Pacific Pharmaceuticals is the distributor of Respigen^TM.  All 3 inhalers are CFC Free, the propellant use is HFA134A. GSK is the only company which markets and manufactures its own salbutamol inhaler, Ventolin^TM .
300,000 salbutamol packs are now prescibed generically by GP's per annum but how many people have opted for the partial funded original Ventolin Brand is unknown.
Check out your inhalers in action below PDF.

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