Could Your Favorite Cold Medicine Stop Being Sold In Missouri?

Depending on what you take to battle the congestion of a cold, the flu, or allergies, you might soon have difficulty finding it on the shelves of your favorite Missouri pharmacy.

Why?

The US Food and Drug Administration has found that a common ingredient in products like Sudafed PE, Vicks DayQuill, and Mucinex Sinus-Max does not work. I'm talking about Phenylephrine. It's been widely used as a decongestant for decades and is safe; as I mentioned, it is lousy at clearing congestion—so much so that the FDA wants to pull it off the market.

Let me take you back to 2005. There's a good chance your favorite decongestant before that year used a similar decongestant, pseudoephedrine. That worked well. I was a Sudafed man back then. It was great. Unfortunately, pseudoephedrine, in large quantities, can be used in making meth. So behind the counter, it went. What replaced it and wasn't as effective? Phenylephrine.

According to CNN Health, in 2007, the FDA felt phenylephrine "may be effective" as a decongestant but recommended further research. Since then, the drug has gone through several large clinical trials, showing it is ineffective when taken orally.

I'm unsure if I would have characterized it as ineffective, but I knew it wasn't as good as when the meds were formulated with pseudoephedrine.

So what's next? According to CNN Health, the FDA is conducting a six-month public comment period, after which the agency will decide whether to remove phenylephrine products from the shelves.

Most pharmacies, except CVS, still sell these drugs, and it's possible they won't disappear. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents the manufacturers, argues that decongestants that include the drug are the only ones available without purchase restrictions and that numerous over-the-counter cough and cold medicines labeled with the decongestant claim contain the drug.

It is true. My go-to decongestant for when I get a nasty cold includes phenylephrine and another called Oxymetazoline Hydrochloride, along with three different antihistamines, and it works—certainly better than what I used to use, which was all phenylephrine.

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The bottom line is that I don't think the array of cold medicines will disappear anytime soon. Either the FDA will leave them alone, or the companies will reformulate the drugs to eliminate phenylephrine if the FDA requires them to, and hopefully, they'll work better.

The next time you're dealing with the aches, pains, and congestion that can come with the cold or flu, it might be worth asking the pharmacist what he or she recommends. Especially if what you've been using doesn't work very well. They might recommend your new favorite cold med.