GSK gives free inhalers with Advair

Drug Store News, April 29, 2002

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Glaxo SmithKline is launching a new Promise Program that gives Advair Diskus users up to four free Ventolin HFA "rescue" inhalers per year.

GSK is publicizing the offer primarily through direct mail and doctors' offices, and its sales representatives are offering pharmacists an opportunity to order Promise Program cards and brochures to help patients sign up for the program at the pharmacy.

Patients must have prescriptions for both Advair (fluticasone propionate and slameterol inhalation power) and Ventolin HFA (albuterol sulfate) in order to participate in the Promise Program. Patients then present their Promise Program cards to the pharmacy, where they will receive a canister of Ventolin HFA free of charge when their prescriptions for Advair Diskus are filled. Program participants can receive free Ventolin HFA each time they fill an Advair prescription, for a maximum of four flee canisters per year. Ventolin HFA is the newer, CFC-free version of Ventolin inhalation aerosol.

"Pharmacists will be reimbursed in full for all Ventolin prescriptions dispensed," GSK spokeswoman Patty Johnson said.