FDA advisory panel's conclusion that oral phenylephrine is ineffective means consumers need to think twice when buying cold and flu meds

By Lucas Berenbrok, Associate Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, University of Pittsburgh
Colleen Culley, Associate Professor of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh
Karen Steinmetz Pater, Associate Professor of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh

The ramp-up to cold and flu season is a bad time for consumers to learn that some of their most trusted go-to products don’t actually work.

An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded unanimously in September 2023 that phenylephrine – an active ingredient found in popular over-the-counter cough and cold products such as Sudafed PE, Theraflu and NyQuil Severe Cold and Flu – works no better than a placebo…

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