A CVS pharmacy store is seen in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
CFS is removing some of the most common cough and cold medications from 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 advisers to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously determined that the key ingredient used in many popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications doesn’t really work to clear up stuffy noses if it is taken orally.
The FDA has not yet decided whether to ask drug manufacturers and retailers such as CVS to remove products containing oral phenylephrine — a nasal decongestant found in versions of medications such as NyQuil, Benadryl, Sudafed and Mucinex — from the market.
However, CVS is voluntarily removing from its stores certain cough and cold medications that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient.
CVS is aware of the FDA advisors’ determination and will follow the agency’s guidance to ensure that products sold in 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.
Oral products that list phenylephrine as the only active ingredient include Sudafed PE, which is marketed by Johnson & Johnson’s consumer health spin-off. Kenvue. Kenvue declined to comment on CVS’s decision.
The Wall Street Journal first reported CVS’s decision on Thursday.
Completely removing oral phenylephrine from the market could impact CVS and other pharmacy chains, which bring in revenue from the sale of over-the-counter cold and allergy pills.
U.S. stores sold 242 million bottles of medications containing phenylephrine last year, a 30% increase from 2021, according to data collected by FDA staff. Those bottles generated $1.8 billion in sales last year, the data said.
Without oral phenylephrine, patients will also likely be forced to seek out liquid and spray versions of the drugs or entirely new drugs, which are not included in the FDA advisors’ review.
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