Ventolin is just one of the numerous brands of asthma & COPD medicines. It's generic drug is albuterol. Albuterol helps open the bronchial passages within your lungs to ease breathing during an asthma attack.It can be used as a rescue medicine to help relieve your sudden asthma symptoms when they occur. The MDI form or metered dose inhaler helps deliver a specific amount of medication to the lungs. Ventolin claims to be the "first & only albuterol Metered-Dose Inhaler (MDI) with a Built-in Dose Counter." The counter enables the user to keep track of the number of times an inhaler was used, so that it can be replaced after its recommended number of uses.