FDA Panel Recommends Ban on Cold Medicines for Kids

Over-the-counter drugs are unsafe for children under 6, advisers say.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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FRIDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended a ban on over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children younger than 6.

Citing a number of studies that showed the remedies were no better than a placebo, the outside experts also recommended the drugs be tested on children to see if they are effective.

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The evidence that the drugs work is "modest at best" even for adults, said Dr. Mary E. Tinetti, chairwoman of the FDA panel and a professor at Yale University School of Medicine, according to The New York Times.

In two separate votes at the end of two days of hearings on the safety of the drugs for children, the advisers said the medicines shouldn't be used in children younger than 2 or in those younger than 6. A third vote, to recommend against use in children aged 6 to 11, failed, the Associated Press reported. The vote for additional testing of the drugs in children preceded the votes to ban the products.

The recommendations apply to medicines containing at least one of the following ingredients: decongestants, expectorants, antihistamines and antitussives, the AP reported.

The FDA does not have to follow its advisory panels' recommendations, but usually does.

"The recommendations may not lead to a ban of these products, but to a warning on the label," Dr. John K. Jenkins, the director of FDA's Office of New Drugs in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said during a late Friday press conference.

"The message of the panel is that they haven't seen scientific evidence that these products work in children, and they were uneasy about extrapolating the adult doses for children. Parents should pay close attention to the directions on the label," he added.

"We need to take back to the agency all the advice we heard and decide what we are going to do," Jenkins said. "This has to go through the rule-making process, which can take some time."

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