CVS has announced that it will be removing some of the most commonly used cough and cold medications from its shelves and will no longer sell them, according to a company spokesperson who spoke on Thursday.
This decision follows a recent ruling by a panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which unanimously concluded that the primary ingredient in many popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications does not effectively alleviate nasal congestion when taken orally.
While the FDA has not yet made a decision on whether to instruct drug manufacturers and retailers like CVS to withdraw products containing oral phenylephrine—a nasal decongestant found in brands such as NyQuil, Benadryl, Sudafed, and Mucinex—from the market, CVS is proactively removing certain cough and cold medicines that list phenylephrine as the sole active ingredient.
CVS is taking this step in light of the FDA advisory panel’s findings and will comply with any future directives from the agency to ensure that its products adhere to relevant laws and regulations, according to the spokesperson.
The company will continue to offer other oral cough and cold remedies to address patient needs.
Phenylephrine, when listed as the only active ingredient, is found in products like Sudafed PE, which is produced by Kenvue, the consumer health spinoff of Johnson & Johnson. Kenvue has declined to comment on CVS’s decision.
Removing oral phenylephrine from the market could impact CVS and other retail pharmacy chains, which generate significant revenue from over-the-counter cold and allergy medications.
According to data compiled by FDA staff, U.S. retail stores sold 242 million bottles of products containing phenylephrine last year, a 30% increase from 2021. These sales totaled $1.8 billion.
Without oral phenylephrine, patients may need to seek alternative liquid or spray versions of these medications or find new treatments that were not reviewed by the FDA advisors.
