Drug Firms Withdraw Children's Cold Medicines
Due to safety fears, some of the most significant US drug manufacturing firms will cease selling cold medicines designed for children. In a voluntary move, companies including Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson will withdraw their child cold products from the market. The decision, which was announced on the 11th October 2007, came a fortnight after health officials within US government stated parents should avoid use of over-the-counter medicines in children less than two years of age.
Despite the fact that the majority of child cold medicines are dispensable drop-by-drop, in some, isolated cases, parents have administered too much to their children.
In September 2007, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association affirmed that it, along with the government, backed a restriction in the use of child medicines.
Among the products that will no longer be available are Pediacare and Tylenol (Johnson & Johnson), Dimetapp (Wyeth Pharmaceuticals), Triaminic (Novartis) and Little Colds Decongestant (Prestige Brands Holdings). The effects of the withdrawals are not expected to significantly impact on profits, given that the majority of these firms have a core prescription drug range, on which they are more reliant. Indeed, over-the-counter drug sales were responsible for a mere five per cent of J&J's 2006 sales figures.
Paediatric pharmacist Catherine Tom-Rezvon has urged parents to favour use of natural medicines over drugs when dealing with colds in children. "These medications were never designed to cure colds but only to treat cold symptoms, and in children under two there was little evidence they were effective anyway", she stressed.
Several weeks ago, the US Food and Drug Administration recommended a revision in the labelling of child medicine, so as to include the precise warning "do not use in children under two years". A meeting is due to be held on October 18th/19th, in which the issue of implementing this measure will be discussed.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association is set to launch a campaign, though which it intends to advise physicians and parents in the area of child cold medicine safety. Virginia Cox, a CHPA spokeswoman, discussing the prospect of the removed medicines reappearing on the market one day, said it was too premature for any such decision to be made.
"The manufacturers made this decision after a lot of consideration and with great care for the best interests of parents and children", she said, adding "...we can't speak to what the future holds."
Source - Pharmaceutical International's US Correspondent
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