Summary

The FDA has proposed removing oral phenylephrine, a common ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicines like NyQuil and Sudafed, due to evidence that it is ineffective as a nasal decongestant.

The proposal follows a unanimous vote by FDA advisers last year, and recent studies showing less than 1% of the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream when taken orally.

The public comment period ends on May 7, after which the FDA may finalize the ban.

16 points

Something tells me the Trump Administration won’t allow this ban to go through.

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120 points

Yet the homeopathy pills can still be on the shelves right next to real medicine.

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42 points

From my understanding they don’t need to be FDA approved. At that point blame the store, not the FDA. I’m just glad they’re getting this done before they’re purged by the next administration

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27 points

I’ll blame both.

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16 points

Oh I’ll blame both, thank you very much. It’s well within certain governed agencies authority to say “you cannot sell that next to real medicine”.

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2 points

Yeah, you’re correct, and in fact the Phenylephrine itself would still be allowed if they didn’t claim it does something when it doesn’t. All the alternative cures are labelled “homeopathic”, “traditional medicine”, or “herbal remedy”. They don’t say “Active Ingredients: Epson Salt 0.2% : decongestant, bees wax 1% anticoagulant” of some other shit.

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33 points

Fucking finally.

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8 points

No worries, three months from now it’ll all be back on the shelves again

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61 points
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Good. Now do something about homeopathy. I’m so sick of having to explain to people that homeopathy is not medicine in any shape or form. It’s not even a home remedy. And it sits right next to actual medicine so people might accidentally buy it unwittingly.

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6 points

I’m sure the Trump Administration will get right on banning homeopathy, or even just labelling it properly. lol

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3 points

Most certainly! They surely won’t completely dismantle the FDA and then allow big-pharma to dictate everything. /s

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14 points

This was so infuriating during covid as it was hard to find children’s cold medicine already and half the time you’d see a couple bottles of “Children’s cold and flu” on the shelf, buy it, and get home before you notice “homeopathic” written in 3pt font along the bottom of the bottle. Shit’s completely useless.

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8 points

I’ve gotten into the habit of checking active ingredients after almost accidentally buying something homeopathic that was immediately adjacent the thing I actually meant to grab.

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6 points

The problem is, unlike homeopathy, this drug was ineffective for what it was approved for while actually causing side effects. At least the water doesn’t do anything.

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4 points

Right? You can’t even get ear drops that work anymore because all of the ones they stock over the counter are homeopathic where I live.

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3 points

Right, but what can they do, short of banning small bottles of water?

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29 points

Ban small bottles of water that claim magical fixes?

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8 points

Or ban it from being placed next to actual medicine. Go put it in the candy or soda aisle.

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1 point

Ummm they did? That is what this banned, an advertised effective treatment that does nothing.

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2 points

Tell me you didn’t read the article without telling me you didn’t read the article.

Seriously dude, you just had to read the first sentence. They only banned one particular ingredient.

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1 point
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That is included in most over the counter decongestants as the active ingredient.

Please tell me this is not the first you have heard of the switch to combat meth production to a worse then placibo replacement?

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