it's getting harder for asthma sufferers to take a deep breath with news that albuterol the medication that treats asthma and other respiratory illnesses is facing a growing shortage albuterol was put on the fda's drug shortage list in October but since then one of the major producers of the liquid form of Albuterol Acorn Pharmaceuticals has closed all of its operations including its location in New Jersey Acorn filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy leaves only one domestic producer of Albuterol left nephron Pharmaceuticals in South Carolina senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan takes a look at what the albuterol shortage means for hospitals and people who depend on the life-saving drug for Asthma and Allergy patients who sneeze and struggle for breath the drug albuter raw quickly opens Airways and eases the tightness in their chest but a critical Nationwide shortage of liquid albuterol the type used in nebulizers now threatens to leave some people gasping for help especially older folks who use Liquid albuterol because it's cheaper than inhalers and covered by Medicare I've had some of my patients start to complain in the office that they're they're waiting that the the pharmacies don't have the medication or they have to wait for it so this is concerning that's going to be very difficult for them and I'm afraid they're going to end up in the hospital Dr Eric steinman's with Virtua Health which he says has been stockpiling 0.05 percent liquid Albuterol for months after its major manufacturer a company called Acorn shut down plants including one here in New Jersey and then suddenly declared bankruptcy in February some hospitals and patients so far have managed by combining it and compounding smaller packaged doses of liquid albuterol at this point we no longer have large bottles of the albuterol so what we're doing is we're taking the Albuterol and when we need to do something called a continuous nebulize treatment where you need to use multiple vials we've been using the small ones and trying to to use that to help our patients the FDA Put liquid albuterol on its drug shortage list back in October but that's when demand for the drug increased with the so-called triple demic surge says Summit Health's Laura balsamini there was a severe and prolonged surge in both adult and pediatric respiratory illnesses this past winter that has left supplies of these medications at low levels or on intermittent back order balsamini says Summit created a chart listing other medications like Lev albuterol that doctors could substitute each patient is being assessed upon prescribing and during that time they're determined if they can be switched to an alternative medication preventing those gaps in treatment which can be critically you know significant for a patient that is really relying on this and preventing them from having to go to you know emergency rooms but sometimes substitutions cost more than patients can afford we're also putting pressure on the insurers to recognize that this is out of our hands we should not be penalizing patients just because there's a shortage of One agent but now we have an alternative that if they refuse to cover that's not acceptable Acorn which had a plant in Parsippany laid off all its workers the FDA is pushing a drug company called nephron to ramp up Liquid albuterol production but the VA just recalled nephron's Albuterol inhalers because of manufacturing deficiencies cited by the FDA with so many kinks in the supply chains doctors worry about allergy season approaching this is where our asthmatics and our copders get sick because it's beautiful outside the pollen's coming down doctors advise patients to get their allergies under control using long-term meds instead of relying on fast-acting rescue drugs like liquid albuterol before the pollen flies I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News