The most popular nasal decongestant on U.S. pharmacy shelves may not be there much longer. The Food and Drug Administration recently announced plans to phase out phenylephrine, the key ingredient some cold and allergy pills.

Summary

The FDA has proposed phasing out oral phenylephrine, a common decongestant in cold medicines like Sudafed PE and DayQuil, after studies showed it is no more effective than a placebo.

The drug, ineffective when swallowed due to breakdown in the stomach, remains usable in nasal sprays.

Alternatives include pseudoephedrine, nasal sprays, and steroid treatments like Flonase.

The regulatory process to remove phenylephrine could take over a year, but experts argue removing ineffective options will help consumers choose better remedies for congestion. Drugmakers are expected to challenge the proposal.

  • @ITeeTechMonkeyEnglish
    45•3 days ago

    This is some dumb pearl clutching bullshit.

    With this asinine logic, buying apples are condoning evil because their seeds contain cyanide and though there are more effective ways to create cyanide at commercial scale than buying apples and extracting the small amount of cyanide from the seeds it’s still a question of moral principle i.e not condoning evil.

    • @PsythikEnglish
      4•2 days ago

      What’s even bigger bullshit is that you can simply buy Benzedrine from the nasal decongestant aisle instead, remove the cotton wick and soak it in an acid (like lemon juice), and in 24 hours you have the same kind of meth they gave the Nazis. For four dollars. It’s literally just sitting there on the shelf for anyone to buy.

      Everything in life is made up and none of the points matter.

    • @shalafiEnglish
      9•3 days ago

      Yeah, but people are actually making meth from pseudoephedrine and no one is making cyanide from apples.

      And yes, I hate having to go inside to buy it as I use it nearly every day.