Allergy: Arkansas considers PSE switch to Rx-only

As Drug Store News suggested last month, legislation under consideration in Tennessee and Kentucky that would make the popular decongestant pseudoephedrine only available by prescription has, in fact, sparked interest in neighboring states. Arkansas shares a border with Kentucky, where a PSE prescription-only bill was filed in January, and Mississippi, one of two states that already has passed PSE prescription-only legislation.

Nationally, sales of the top-three best-selling PSE products — Claritin-D, Mucinex D and Zyrtec-D — were up 4.3% to $62.1 million across food, drug and mass (minus Walmart) for the 12 weeks ended Jan. 23, according to SymphonyIRI Group data.

Sales of all cough-cold products were up 6.8% to $1.4 billion. Heading into March, between 14% and 16% of the population were experiencing an upper respiratory ailment, according to the Chestal Cold & Flu Tracker sourcing SDI data.

The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Allergy Sell-Through Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here.