WASHINGTON — A top government health official Thursday rejected pediatricians’ calls for an immediate ban on over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for young children, saying it might cause unintended harm.
But Food and Drug Administration officials at a public hearing also said they were uncomfortable with the lack of solid scientific data to support continued use of OTC remedies with youngsters, particularly from ages 2 to 6.
A ban — as sought by leading pediatricians groups — might only drive parents to give adult medicines to their youngsters, said Dr. John Jenkins, who heads the FDA’s Office of New Drugs.
“That is a concern for us,” Jenkins said. “We do not want to do something that we think will have a positive impact, only to have an unintended negative. That could be an even worse situation.”
With a new cold season coming, pediatricians are urging the government to demand a recall of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children younger than 6. The effectiveness of the medicines in children was never proved, critics say, and problems with the drugs send thousands of kids to emergency rooms every year.
“When a treatment is ineffective, its risks — unless zero — always exceed its benefits,” Dr. Michael Shannon of Children’s Hospital in Boston told the FDA panel.
“We don’t see a public-health emergency here as far as an inherent risk of the products,” said the FDA’s Jenkins.
But he agreed with critics who say there’s no proof the medicines work in kids. “We don’t see that adequate evidence of efficacy has been demonstrated in children to date,” Jenkins said.
Clinical studies to try to settle the issue could take years to complete and may not provide clear answers.
“It really is a conundrum for us,” Jenkins said.
The FDA warned in January against giving OTC cold medicines to children younger than 2. At that time, officials said they expected to decide by spring on recommendations for youngsters up to 11. Now the agency is seeking more advice from doctors, industry and consumers — and officials are not giving a timetable for a decision.
U.S. families spend at least $286 million a year on such cough and cold remedies for children, according to the Nielsen Co. market research firm. In any given week, the medicines are used by an estimated 10 percent of all children, with the biggest exposure among 2- to 5-year-olds, a recent Boston University report found.
