How did the decongestant SNAFU happen?

Plus more health news | Email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( [Health Matters]( [We wondered, too: How could a supposed decongestant that doesn't actually work be on pharmacy shelves for decades?]( By Haley Weiss Health Reporter This week, an FDA advisory panel found that the most common over-the-counter decongestant, phenylephrine, is no more effective than a placebo. Though it’s news for most of the country, experts say that the research on phenylephrine, which dates back more than 50 years, has never really shown otherwise. To figure out how such a medicine could stay in use for so long, I talked to Leslie Hendeles, half of a two-man team of allergists at the University of Florida whose two citizen petitions asking the FDA to expand and reevaluate the evidence on phenylephrine—one in 2007 and one in 2015—helped force the agency to have the difficult conversation to reconsider the drug. The answer is a combination of the slow churn of bureaucracy, the changing standards of science over time, and the power of market pressures. There are still a number of steps that must be taken before phenylephrine is pulled from pharmacy shelves, but even by considering the possibility, the FDA is still trying something new for the agency: revoking an approval based on efficacy alone rather than safety, the other key requirement. New legislation has recently made this option simpler than ever before, meaning that this could mark the start of a series of FDA decisions aimed at other medications that lack solid evidence (looking at you, Robitussin). It takes a big agency to admit when it’s wrong, but in the long run, but Americans deserve trust in remedies that work. [READ MORE]( Share This Story What Else to Read [There’s No Sign of Widespread COVID-19 Mandates. Republicans Are Warning of Them Anyway]( By ALI SWENSON / AP GOP presidential candidates are warning about supposed widespread COVID-19 mandates and school closures that are not real. [Read More »]( [Firefighters Fear the Toxic Chemicals in Their Gear Could Be Causing Cancer]( By MICHAEL CASEY / AP Firefighters are starting to worry that the PFAS in their gear could be increasing their risk for cancer. [Read More »]( [The Air Was Hot This Year, But It’s Nothing Compared to the Ocean]( By Stephen Porder and Baylor Fox-Kemper 'Our fate is intimately tied to the fate of our warming oceans,' write Stephen Porder and Baylor Fox-Kemper. [Read More »]( [What It Really Means to Have Intrusive Thoughts]( By Angela Haupt There's more to the story than what you've seen on social media. [Read More »]( [Why Waking Up Earlier Isn’t Necessarily Better]( By Haley Weiss Morning birds aren't morally superior to night owls. [Read More »]( ONE LAST READ [Could 988 die before it even gets going?]( States are at risk of losing their access to the underfunded National Suicide Prevention Hotline, Christina Saint Louis writes for Kaiser Family Foundation Health News and Undark. The federal funding that allowed the hotline to take up the 988 emergency number and serve 33% more people this year is running out—and so far, only eight states have guaranteed to keep it financially supported locally. [Read More »]( If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, [click here](. Today's newsletter was written by Haley Weiss and edited by Elijah Wolfson. [Want more from TIME? Sign up for our other newsletters.]( [Subscribe to TIME]( TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services in this email. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Connect with TIME via [Facebook]( | [Twitter]( | [Newsletters]( [UNSUBSCRIBE]( [PRIVACY POLICY]( [YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS]( TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508 Questions? Contact health@time.com Copyright © 2023 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved.