FMCG firm Procter and Gamble (P&G) has discontinued manufacture and sale of its popular brand ‘Vicks Action 500 Extra’ with immediate effect after the government banned fixed dose combination drugs.

• Drug majors Pfizer and Abbott stopped sale of their popular cough syrups Corex and Phensedyl respectively, after the government banned over 300 fixed dose combinations (FDCs) drugs.
• Pfizer said it has stopped the sale of its Corex cough syrup that garnered sales ofRs. 176 crore in the nine-month period ended December 31, and said the government’s move will have an adverse impact on it.
• In view of the government ban on manufacture and sale of Corex, the “company has discontinued the manufacture and sale of its drug ‘Corex’ with immediate effect.
• Abbott also stopped sale of its Phensedyl cough syrup.
• In a gazette notification on March 10, the government had, among others, banned manufacture, sale and distribution of fixed does combination of chlopheniramine maleate plus codiene syrup which is used in the cough syrups.

VICKS Facts

• Vicks is an American brand of over-the-counter medications owned by the American company Procter & Gamble.
• The Vicks brand also produces Formula 44 cough medicines, cough drops, Vicks VapoRub, and a number of inhaled breathing treatments.
• Vicks products were manufactured by the family-owned company Richardson-Vicks, Inc., based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• Richardson-Vicks, Inc., was eventually sold to Procter & Gamble in 1985.
• In Japan the product is distributed by Taisho pharmaceutical but is manufactured by P&G in India. In Belgium the product is imported by Procter & Gamble and is called “Vicks”.
• In German-speaking countries, the brandname Vicks was changed to Wick in order to avoid possible sexual connotations linked to Vicks or Vick.

• In Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries, the brand name is changed to Vick.

IS VICKS Action 500 safe?

Unfortunately Vicks Action 500 is not a very safe medicine because one of its ingredients (PPA) is banned in nearly all European and North American countries. PPA has been implicated in causation of stroke – a potentially dangerous and life-threatening side effect. Unfortunately the Indian drug control system due to a variety of non-scientific reasons has not banned the use of PPA in India (before March 15, 2016). It is advisable to use another decongestant product (Sinarest) that does not contain PPA but pseudoephedrine, an equally potent decongestant but much safer.