US CHPA proposal "will not protect children"

The proposal by the US Consumer Healthcare Products Association to voluntarily change the labeling of cough and cold remedies to instruct parents not to give them to children aged under four years has been attacked as "a political compromise, not a solution based on scientific evidence," by the consumer group Public Citizen. The move by the representative body of over-the-counter drugs was taken in response to a call by a number of organizations, to prohibit the use of such treatments for children aged 12 or less.

Public Citizen is a campaigning group which among others, supports a ban on drug industry advertising and has lobbied in favor of price controls on Medicare-supplied medicines (Marketletters passim). The group also opposes a "behind-the-counter" approach, which allows a consumer to speak to a pharmacist and obtain advice and purchase certain drugs without a physician's prescription (Marketletter November 26, 2007).