Summary

The FDA has proposed phasing out oral phenylephrine, a common decongestant in cold medicines like Sudafed 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.

  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    10 months ago

    The problem is that it is legally an evil drug because you can make meth from it, so it remains heavily restricted. There are more effective ways to make meth at commercial scale than by buying and crushing up cold and flu tablets, but it’s a question of moral principle, i.e. not condoning evil.

    • ITeeTechMonkey@lemmy.world
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      10 months 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.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They spend more money and chemistry making pseudoephedrine hard to make into meth then they do on the everything else in the medicine. It’s also why meth labs tend to blow up when they didn’t with with standard pseudoephedrine.