Friday, October 20, 2023 — CVS Health is going to take off the shelves cold medicines with phenylephrine because federal regulators recently decided that the decongestant doesn’t work.

Phenylephrine taken by mouth is a main ingredient in well-known medicines like Sudafed and Dayquil.

“We are removing certain oral cough and cold products that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient from CVS Pharmacy stores,” the company said to CBS MoneyWatch.

“Other oral cough and cold products will continue to be offered to meet consumer needs,” the company said.

Walgreens, a different grocery chain, said it “follows FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulations,” but it didn’t say if it would sell the medicines less.

A representative told CBS MoneyWatch, “We are keeping a close eye on the situation and working with the Walgreens Office of Clinical Integrity and suppliers to figure out what the next steps should be.”

According to statistics from the FDA, medicines that contain phenylephrine bring in $1.8 billion every year.

Last month, an FDA expert group said the ingredient wasn’t useful.

• CBS News, October 19, 2023