Our law firm, Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman, has a team of cold medicine attorneys that are pursuing claims against over-the-counter cold medicine manufacturers that sold nasal decongestants with an active ingredient that the companies allegedly knew was not effective.

On September 12, 2023, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration agreed unanimously that a common decongestant ingredient, phenylephrine, used in many over-the-counter cold medicines is ineffective. The panel’s vote followed its review of several existing studies, with the advisers largely concluding that the research settled the question that the ingredient was useless and no better than a placebo. According to an agency presentation, about 242 million products with phenylephrine were sold in the United States last year, generating $1.76 billion of sales and accounting for about four-fifths of the market for oral decongestants. The FDA will now decide whether to essentially ban the ingredient, which would result in pulling hundreds of products containing it from store shelves.

Phenylephrine is found in many popular OTC oral medications that purportedly act as decongestants, including the following popular products:

Since at least 2007, scientific studies using modern testing methodologies and rigors have, time and again, shown that phenylephrine taken orally is ineffective. Scientific studies using modern testing methodologies and rigors have, time and again, shown that phenylephrine is ineffective since then. However, rather than acknowledge the truth of these studies, manufacturers have continued to market and sell their products with phenylephrine as effective decongestant medicine and have charged a premium price for these ineffective products. Accordingly, consumers have been fleeced of billions of dollars year after year by these pharmaceutical giants for medicines that worked no better than a placebo.

At Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman, our nasal decongestant lawyers are currently accepting cases on behalf of consumers in all 50 states who purchased cold medicines containing phenylephrine and were therefore ineffective and worthless. If you purchased any of these nasal decongestants, you should contact our Cold Medicine Attorneys or call us at (973) 228-9898 so we can evaluate your potential phenylephrine lawsuit.

The consultation is free and if we accept your case, we only get paid if we win the case.