The US Food and Drug Administration announced on Wednesday that it would seek to pull a widely used ingredient in cough and cold medicines from the market, after the agency's scientists concluded that the oral version of the drug is ineffective as a nasal decongestant.
The FDA's proposal comes more than a year after the agency's outside advisers voted against continued use of the ingredient, called oral phenylephrine.
A number of common over-the-counter nasal decongestants have relied on phenylephrine alone or in combination with other ingredients for years, including some cold and cough versions of Advil, NyQuil, Tylenol and Theraflu.