It's About Time
Back in the 1990's, cold medicines would clear your nose and sinuses right away. I still remember being able to take cold medicine and feel almost as good as I would without a cold.
Within a decade, it was almost impossible to get a cold medicine that had much of any effect on nasal congestion. Sometimes it was easy to wonder if we'd just imagined those old medicines that did their job right away.
As it turned out, the names on the labels stayed the same, but the ingredients changed. In an attempt to stop the use of OTC medicines in the manufacture of illegal meth, a drug known as phenylephrine replaced the more effective pseudoephedrine in their formulations.
Now it turns out that phenylephrine isn't even as effective as it was originally presented for FDA approval. Several studies have now been revealed to be highly questionable, if not outright fudged. As a result, it appears that FDA approval will be withdrawn, and manufacturers will no longer be able to use it in cold medicine formulations.
That does leave the question of what they will be using in the future, given that pseudoephedrine still has restrictions that will require it to be kept behind the pharmacy counter and purchasers to jump through hoops to get it. But at least we should be able to kiss ineffective cold medicines good-bye.
Within a decade, it was almost impossible to get a cold medicine that had much of any effect on nasal congestion. Sometimes it was easy to wonder if we'd just imagined those old medicines that did their job right away.
As it turned out, the names on the labels stayed the same, but the ingredients changed. In an attempt to stop the use of OTC medicines in the manufacture of illegal meth, a drug known as phenylephrine replaced the more effective pseudoephedrine in their formulations.
Now it turns out that phenylephrine isn't even as effective as it was originally presented for FDA approval. Several studies have now been revealed to be highly questionable, if not outright fudged. As a result, it appears that FDA approval will be withdrawn, and manufacturers will no longer be able to use it in cold medicine formulations.
That does leave the question of what they will be using in the future, given that pseudoephedrine still has restrictions that will require it to be kept behind the pharmacy counter and purchasers to jump through hoops to get it. But at least we should be able to kiss ineffective cold medicines good-bye.