Albuterol Inhaler Shortage: What COPD Patients Who Smoked Need to Know

The short version: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that albuterol sulfate inhalation solution — the liquid form of albuterol used in nebulizer machines — is currently in short supply across the country. If you or someone you love depends on a nebulizer to breathe, this is real, and you may have trouble filling your prescription. The handheld inhaler form is not as widely affected, but patients are reporting problems with both. Here is what is happening, what you can do today, and what it means if you smoked.

What albuterol is and why a shortage matters

Albuterol is a rescue medication. It works by relaxing the muscles around the airways in your lungs, which opens those airways up and makes it easier to breathe. It has been a standard treatment for lung conditions in the United States for decades.

There are two main ways doctors give it. The first is a handheld inhaler — the small pressurized canister most people picture when they hear the word “inhaler.” The second is an inhalation solution, which is a liquid you put into a nebulizer machine and breathe in as a fine mist over several minutes. The current shortage is specifically about that liquid form.

For a lot of patients, the nebulizer is not just a preference. It is the only delivery method that actually works for them. People with severe COPD often do not have the lung strength to draw a full dose from a handheld inhaler. Older adults and people with arthritis sometimes cannot work the canister at all. For those patients, no nebulizer solution means no medicine.

Who depends on albuterol most

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a long-term lung condition that makes breathing harder and harder over time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 16 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD, and millions more probably have it without knowing. Asthma affects roughly 25 million more. Together, those two conditions are responsible for the vast majority of albuterol prescriptions in this country.

For people with COPD, albuterol is often used several times a day, every day. During a flare-up — when the airways tighten and breathing becomes especially hard — it can be the difference between staying home and going to the emergency room.

What to do if your pharmacy does not have it

A drug shortage does not mean every pharmacy is out of stock at the same time. Supply varies a lot by location, by chain, and by which wholesale distributor a pharmacy uses. A few steps you can take today:

• Call before you drive. Ask the pharmacy specifically whether they have albuterol sulfate inhalation solution in the strength and unit size you use (the most common is the 0.083% solution in 3 mL single-use vials). Be specific about the exact form.
• Try independent pharmacies. Smaller pharmacies often use different distributors than the big chains and sometimes have stock when CVS or Walgreens does not.
• Ask your doctor about switching forms. If you currently use a nebulizer, your doctor may be able to write you a prescription for a handheld inhaler with a spacer attachment, which works for some patients who normally cannot use one. Do not switch on your own — talk to your doctor first.
• Check mail-order pharmacies. Many insurance plans allow a 90-day mail-order refill. Mail-order pharmacies pull from different supply chains and may have stock when local stores do not.
• Do not skip doses or stretch what you have. If you are running low, call your doctor before you run out, not after. There may be options the pharmacy does not know about.

Most people with COPD smoked — and that is not an accident

There is something that does not get said plainly enough: cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD. The American Lung Association estimates that smoking is responsible for as many as 85 to 90 percent of all COPD cases in the United States. If you have COPD, there is a very strong chance that years of cigarette smoke — whether you smoked yourself, or you spent decades around someone who did — damaged your lungs.

This is not a story about personal blame. People who started smoking forty, fifty, sixty years ago were not making a fully informed choice. They were marketed to relentlessly, by companies that already knew what their products did.

What the tobacco companies knew — and hid

For decades, the major American tobacco companies publicly told their customers that the science was not settled, that smoking was not proven to cause lung disease, and that “light” or “low tar” cigarettes were a safer choice. Internal company documents that came out later, through court cases and federal investigations, told a different story. The companies had research showing the lung damage smoking caused. They had research on addiction. And they engineered their products in ways designed to make quitting harder.

This pattern of concealment is the legal foundation of cigarette disease lawsuits. Courts in multiple states have already held tobacco companies accountable for the harm their products caused. You can read more about that history in our article on how tobacco companies hid the truth for decades.

If smoking caused your COPD, you may have legal options

If you smoked for years and developed COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or another serious smoking-related disease, it is worth understanding what your legal options look like. This is true even if you started smoking a long time ago, and even if you have since quit.

The Alvarez Law Firm currently handles cigarette disease cases for clients in Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii, Illinois, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Pennsylvania. Each of these jurisdictions has its own filing deadlines and legal standards. There is no fee unless the firm recovers money for you, and case reviews are free and confidential.

A few situations where it usually makes sense to ask:

• You smoked for ten or more years and have been diagnosed with COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or lung cancer.
• You started smoking as a teenager or young adult, before you fully understood the risks.
• Your health has gotten significantly worse and your breathing affects your daily life.
• You have been hospitalized, put on oxygen, or had major medical expenses because of your lung disease.

Two related articles you may want to read next: COPD from smoking and your legal rights, and can you still sue a tobacco company in 2026.

Important: every state has a filing deadline

Every state imposes a statute of limitations — a hard deadline to file a lawsuit. The exact deadline depends on the state, the type of claim, and when you were diagnosed. Once that deadline passes, you may permanently lose the right to seek anything at all. This is the single biggest reason not to wait.

You do not need to have a case figured out before you talk to a lawyer. You just need to describe what happened, and let someone who works in this area tell you whether your situation qualifies.

Talk to a lawyer — free, no pressure

Use the form below to share a few details about your situation. There is no cost, no commitment, and someone from the firm will follow up. You can also call (305) 444-7675 if you would rather talk to a person.

Sources

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “FDA Drug Shortages: Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution.” accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/default.cfm. Accessed June 2026.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) — Data and Statistics.” cdc.gov/copd. Accessed June 2026.
3. American Lung Association. “COPD Causes and Risk Factors.” lung.org. Accessed June 2026.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults in the United States.” cdc.gov/tobacco. Accessed June 2026.
5. Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). “Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.” 2025 Report. goldcopd.org.
6. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “COPD Treatment.” nhlbi.nih.gov. Accessed June 2026.