CVS to pull certain cold medicines containing decongestant phenylephrine from store shelves

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNBC

Published Thu, Oct 19 2023 4:01 PM EDT


CVS is removing some of the most common cough and cold medicines from its store shelves and will no longer sell them, a company spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday.

The company’s decision comes a month after a panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously determined that the main ingredient used in many popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications doesn’t actually work to clear up congested noses when taken orally.

The FDA has not decided whether to ask drug manufacturers and retailers such as CVS to remove products containing oral phenylephrine — a nasal decongestant found in versions of drugs such as NyQuil, Benadryl, Sudafed and Mucinex — from the market. However, CVS is voluntarily removing certain cough and cold medicines that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient from stores.

CVS is aware of the determination made by the FDA advisors and will follow directions from the agency to ensure that products sold at the company’s stores comply with laws and regulations, the spokesperson said. They added that CVS stores will continue to offer other oral cough and cold products to meet patient needs.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/19/cvs-to-pull-certain-cold-medicines-from-store-shelves.html

[usonian]

1. phenylephrine is completely useless.

Its nicknamed PE.

If it were a sugar pill, it could at least sweeten your coffee.

Ask the pharmacist for something else. Pseudoephedrine is controlled and you have to show ID.

As for mixtures containing a decongestant, ask the pharmacist or MD.

As for Pseudoephedrine ( aka Sudafed)
Wikipedia says;

Pseudoephedrine is indicated for the treatment of nasal congestion, sinus congestion, and Eustachian tube congestion.[10] Pseudoephedrine is also indicated for vasomotor rhinitis, and as an adjunct to other agents in the optimum treatment of allergic rhinitis, croup, sinusitis, otitis media, and tracheobronchitis.[10]

Here's why it's controlled ( behind the counter only)
Manufacture of amphetamines

Its membership in the amphetamine class has made pseudoephedrine a sought-after chemical precursor in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine and methcathinone. As a result of the increasing regulatory restrictions on the sale and distribution of pseudoephedrine, pharmaceutical firms have reformulated medications to use alternative compounds, particularly phenylephrine, even though its efficacy as a decongestant has been demonstrated to be indistinguishable from placebo.[22]

In the United States, federal laws control the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products.[23][24][25] Retailers in the US have created corporate policies restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products.[26][27] Their policies restrict sales by limiting purchase quantities and requiring a minimum age and government issued photographic identification.[24][25] These requirements are similar to and sometimes more stringent than existing law.

References here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoephedrine

[BumRushDaShow]

2. The CVS action is in reference to this

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10143129103

[usonian]

3. I figured it out on my own.

Countless sinus headaches weren't getting any relief, so I ponied up my driver's license and swore never to make and sell amphetamines.

What a cruel hoax, substituting that placebo.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Welcome to a BIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGG club!

[Get Me Outta Here]

5. Same here

Motherfuckers fooled me and my shitty nasal sinuses exactly once.

[RobinA]

43. Me Too

I knew of the change, or it might have taken me longer, but one use of that PE stuff and I knew it was useless. I threw the rest of the pack away.

[IbogaProject]

36. And the cartel meth is way more toxic

The mom and pop stuff made from cold medicines and ephedrine was much more pure. The cartel stuff seems to precipitate a rapid descent into mental health collapse.

[The Blue Flower]

6. Does anyone have info about dextromethorphan/

it's been in cold remedies for a long time, as i recall. A friend's husband is in a psyche ward right now because he had hallucinations after overdosing on it.

[usonian]

7. See Wikipedia under "overdose"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextromethorphan

[The Blue Flower]

9. Very helpful

thanks!

[usonian]

12. Wikipedia is a great place to start.

And, other than the begs for money, they don't try to sell you stuff.

I looked for info on the Feynman Path Integral (Physics and Math) and got this at or near the top:



They're free at Wikipedia!

[Elessar Zappa]

13. It's good for a cough but it's terrible if you overdose.

When I was young and dumb, I purposely ingested two bottle of dextro cough syrup to get high. It made me feel like everyone in the world could see into my soul. I was convinced that every car and person walking by my house knew everything about me and was plotting against me. It was basically a psychotic episode. Luckily the feeling went away after about 12 hours and I never tried that again.

[The Wandering Harper]

23. one bottle is relatively tame

but I'm glad I got tired of it fairly quick. When a friend of mine tried two, the next day his dad found him unconscious on the porch with dirty ripped clothes and leaves and twigs in his hair. He has no recollection between consuming the bottles and being roused the next day

[DivByZero]

41. Dextromethorphan Is a cough suppressant

different class of drugs

[Maraya1969]

8. I am furious right now. United Healthcare through Medicare gives you $40 every quarter to spend

on over the counter drugs. I ordered Sudafed thinking it was the real Sudafed and I've been taking it for the last several days because my ear is so congested and it hasn't been working. Well of course not because I have been taking that other shit drug that I can't spell.

So after I saw this thread and read the first post I flew down to Publix and got a box of fucking SUDAFED. How can they call them by the same name in the first place?

So I just took one about 15 minutes ago. I hope I feel better. I have been sleeping on a heating pad and putting Biofreeze on the outside of my ear.

Thank you for this information. I used to take Sudafed and it does work.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. A number of these products have different versions

with phenylephrine or with pseudoephedrine. Biggest example that I used to use was Alka Seltzer Plus, where they discontinued the one with pseudoephedrine.

For the SUDAFEDs -





Anything with pseudoephedrine is "behind the counter" (or in a locked display case) and is normally tracked with restrictions for how much can be purchased monthly (thanks to the druggies that use it to make meth).

Have to read the label and note where/how it is displayed.

[elleng]

14. WISH those with pseudoephedrine were still available.

Not sure they are.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. They still make it

but you would need to either ask the pharmacist for it OR like my pharmacy, they will have a little display unit that has either individual paper sheets with a pic of the product (where the number of sheets in that display unit on the shelf represents the number in stock that you then hand in at check-out to receive and pay for the product) or they will have empty boxes of product that you can remove and take to the counter and they will bring you the product from their stock OR they will have the product in a special locked display case that a designated employee can retrieve for you.

They will record your purchase and associate it with your verifiable personal info - usually via some sort of government ID like a driver's license - to track the purchase.

[elleng]

17. Thanks. Used to get it @ pharmacy in my grocery,

but either disappeared or mis-managed. Will try again soon.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. They definitely "lock it away"

with different retailers doing that in different ways.

[elleng]

21. My patience been waning, but

DU's giving me HOPE!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

22. I used to use Vicks Formula 44M syrup when it had pseudoephedrine in it

and like the Alka Seltzer Plus, they took it away (I had even stocked up on bottles back when they phased it out but eventually used that up).

I ended up getting the Sudafed with the pseudoephedrine a couple times although thankfully I haven't needed it in a long time. My go-to ends up being Muscinex and occasionally Benedryl.

[JCMach1]

25. Alka Seltzer plus was the bomb... It worked so quickly

[Maraya1969]

18. You have to give your license and sign your name to get the real stuff that works.

I stupidly thought that because I was getting it from Medicare that they would give me the real thing. And as I just learned on this thread I've been taking a bunch of nothing for weeks now.

[elleng]

20. Did that for a long time, but my grocery's pharmacy stopped providing it, a while ago.

Gonna check again, as been 'taking a bunch of nothing' recently, and

[Maraya1969]

24. Doesn't that just piss you off? I would check around. Maybe one of the smaller, non chain

pharmacies' carry it. Then again I just bought a big box at Publix pharmacy.

[elleng]

27. No Publix around here, so will stay close.

Fingers crossed.

[IbogaProject]

37. That PE form should be PS short for Pure Sh!t

[CCExile]

40. The Feds determined that the pills don't work AT ALL. When used nasally, in a spray

it works very well, but not for long (4 Way means about 4 hours).

[slightlv]

10. This crap makes me so mad!

They might as well fill the shelves all with placebos, cause that's all they're offering us, anyway. I *wish* they could suffer through my sinus headaches!

I'm so done with CVS, I'm slowly moving all my scripts away from them anyway. Not for the reason in this article, but because of the hassle and debasement I get when I try to get my pain meds script filled. They only THINK they've seen a "hysterical woman!"

[Elessar Zappa]

15. Good.

The stuff’s basically a placebo. Really the only thing that works is behind-the-counter Sudafed (made with pseudoephedrine).

[captain queeg]

26. Yep. I realized right away the new version was useless. Fortunately in my state to old version is available behind the counter.

It’s more controlled than narcotics, the way they take all your info. I never had to go thru such riggaramole to pick up pain pills (though that seems to have increased in the last few years).

[AllyCat]

28. I've not found cold medicine to work at all.

This is not a surprise to me. Maybe i decided that after taking this useless version ?

[burrowowl]

29. Kick

[sybylla]

30. I am one of the few people for whom this stuff works.

It has always helped with hay fever and spring allergies when pseudoephedrine did nothing for me. I discovered this back in the day that both were available side by side on the shelves.

If they pull this, my only options will be the drugs that make me drowsy. Thankfully, cetirizine takes care of the worst symptoms these days.

[3Hotdogs]

31. rBest remedy I've used -- nasal irrigation. There are three types.

Old fashioned netti pot, available in many drug stores.

-- pump type that forces distilled, salted water through your nasal passages. That is the kind I use.

Or the type that vacuums water through your nasal passages. This is the one that is advertised on tv and radio. I have no experience with this.

All involve some preparation but they work.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. I had started using a neti pot

maybe 15 years ago. Made a huge difference including whenever it got too dry (I eventually got several humidifiers for winter).

I bought one of these and still have it, and will boil water, and then cool it until it is warm to the touch (probably in the 80Fs - 90F) -

[Historic NY]

32. Well they certainly all have made money with this deception

imagine taking a product that really doesn't help anyone except the company share holders. Chicken soup really is the best medicine followed by hot and sour soup.

[IronLionZion]

33. Phenylephrine has worked for me, just not very well

Pseudoephedrine is much more effective of course. You just have to go to the pharmacist and ask for it, show ID, promise not to make meth or sell it to anyone else, etc. It's commonly stolen so they need to control access.

[k55f5r]

35. Southern Comfort is the best cold remedy

with lemon juice and honey. Then straight Southern Comfort until the bottle is empty.

[usonian]

39. Do not mix alcohol with decongestant.

Stick to one or the other.

[usonian]

38. 🖖🏽 REMINDER 🖖🏽 You can get the generic Sudafed.

It's the same. The patent expired.
It's probably a lot cheaper but I go straight for the generic and don't compare.

Just ask for the generic and promise not to make amphetamines with it.

[Picaro]

42. Reminds me of a very brief conversation with a pharamacist years ago

When they put all the products containing pseudoepinephrine behind the counter they didn't exactly announce it. The shelves were empty other than the products containing phenylephrine. I knew from experience that phenylephrine was completely ineffective.

I went to the counter and asked how I could get Sudafed or the house brand equivalent. She explained to me that I would have to sign for the Sudafed and cheerfully asked me, "Why don't you just buy the decongestants that are still on the shelf?"

"Because that drug just doesn't work"

"Oh."

They knew. That stuff never worked.