Yanis Darras // Photo credit: MENDIL / BSIP / BSIP via AFP 16:48 p.m., October 24, 2023

Humex Cold, Actifed, Dolirhume... The French Medicines Agency is calling on the French to stop consuming the stars of the anti-cold market. These treatments, called vasoconstrictors, can cause strokes or heart attacks in some people. So why do these drugs still go on sale? Europe 1 asked itself the question.

Dolirhume, Humex Cold, Actifed day and night... These drugs, which help fight the effects of the common cold, are in the sights of the French Medicines Agency (ANSM). The College of General Medicine, the National Professional Council of ENT, the National Order of Pharmacists and the pharmacists' unions now strongly recommend that these so-called "vasoconstrictor" treatments should no longer be used at all.

As these drugs, called vasoconstrictors, are diluted in the blood, they slightly close the blood vessels in the nose that carry white blood cells to the inflamed mucosa. This then helps to reduce the sensation of a stuffy nose.

Is Europe to blame?

While warnings have been multiplying for several years, the harmfulness of these star drugs is no longer to be underlined. The medical community has shown that these treatments can lead to heart attacks or strokes in rare cases.

But if the medical profession formally advises against buying new boxes of these drugs, it will still be possible to buy them in pharmacies. An oddity that is partly due to the European Union. As the drugs are on sale almost all over the continent, a re-evaluation of their marketing at the European level will be carried out to decide, or not, whether or not to ban the sale of Actifed and others.

Be patient

A procedure that should still take a little time, even though the ANSM requested this reassessment in February 2023. And the differences in views between Member States should not help the process. But the ANSM could have chosen to withdraw from the market certain molecules marketed in the 90s, reveals Capital. The agency justifies itself by stressing that it prefers to wait for the European opinion.

While waiting for their potential end of sale on the market, professionals recommend that patients relieve their colds with a suitable nose wash, or to rely on your patience. With or without treatment, a cold will heal on its own after seven to ten days.