STAT+: Warren asks HHS watchdog to investigate GSK over its asthma inhaler maneuvers
After a year of controversy and complaints, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking a federal watchdog to investigate GSK over its maneuvers related to its asthma inhaler.
After a year of controversy and complaints, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking a federal watchdog to investigate GSK for replacing a popular asthma inhaler with a so-called authorized generic at a much higher price in order to avoid paying Medicaid rebates.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Warren accused the company of “outrageous profiteering” because the maneuver cost Medicaid nearly $1 billion in 2024. And it also deterred private insurers from covering the generic, which reduced access and caused a shortage of the primary alternative for children.
Not only has the gambit “fleeced taxpayers” and circumvented a federal law governing rebates that drug makers are supposed to pay to Medicaid, but “GSK’s greed may have had deadly impacts,” she wrote in the letter. “This crisis has created gaps in access to medically necessary treatment for patients who are unable to afford the authorized generic or access an alternative.”
