Drugmakers withdraw child cold remedies

Less than a week before an advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration rules on whether to ban some over-the-counter cold and cough remedies for young children (Marketletter October 8), the Washington Post reports that leading drugmakers have started to withdraw some of the affected products from the market. Previously, the agency announced that it had received expert advise to recommend that decongestants should not be given to children under two years old and that antihistamines should be inaccessible to those under six years.

US health care majors Johnson & Johnson and Wyeth Healthcare, as well as Swiss drug major Novartis, have carried out what the Los Angeles Times described as "a pre-emptive strike by the over-the-counter drug manufacturers." The newspaper also claimed that none of the recalled products was labeled for use by over-two-year-olds.

Action "only appears" to be voluntary