Useless Decongestants Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
The FDA should purge pharmacy shelves of ineffective drugs.
That “PE” is doing a lot of work on the package but very little work in your sinuses.
Photographer: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
With cold and flu season ramping up, you may soon be heading to the pharmacy in search of relief. When you do, you might remember that Sudafed has long been considered an effective decongestant. So you grab a box of oral decongestant that says Sudafed. You may or may not notice that the brand name is now followed by two letters: PE.
But Sudafed PE is a completely different drug from the original Sudafed, which can only be purchased from behind the counter. Other oral decongestants on drugstore shelves are very likely to be made with the same ingredient as Sudafed PE — phenylephrine. And it’s not effective. A few weeks ago, an FDA advisory panel confirmed what some patients, pharmacists and doctors have long suspected: that oral decongestants based on phenylephrine don’t decongest.