Cold season is approaching quicker than we want it to and when we get a stuffy nose, we reach out to our favorite decongestant. Problem, the FDA says that decongestants actually don’t work. An FDA panel concluded that the main ingredient in sudafed, benadryl, mucinex, and other household names, doesn’t actually work. Recent studies showed that people who took the drug had no clearer sinuses than those who took a placebo, validating long-standing doubts from some pharmacists about its effectiveness
So, what now? The FDA will decide whether to take the panel’s advice and revoke the drug’s over-the-counter safety designation. That would require pharmaceutical companies to reformulate medicines containing phenylephrine, and in the meantime, products with it would be taken off shelves. That’ll make a dent. In 2021, medicines with the drug generated nearly $2 billion in sales,
