The US Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal to remove oral phenylephrine – a common ingredient in many popular over-the-counter decongestants – from the market, citing evidence that it doesn’t work.

When you're feeling under the weather, you likely grab your go-to cough and cold medicine. But are all the ingredients helping you fight off that cold?

The medicines will remain available for the time being, but the FDA has proposed an order, which CBS News reports will be open for comment until May 7, 2025. After that time, the agency is expected to give manufacturers time to remove or reformulate their products.

The FDA is proposing many popular over-the-counter cold and allergy medications be removed from store shelves. The agency says a common ingredient they share, oral phenylephrine, doesn’t actually relieve nasal congestion.

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed to remove oral phenylephrine, widely used in cold and cough syrups, as an active ingredient in over-the-counter drugs for nasal congestion, stating it is not effective,