"No More Sneezing . . ."

For months the U.S. public has been assured, through printed and radioed advertising blurbs, that antihistamine tablets will stop colds, kill colds, prevent colds, or save a cold sufferer from some worse illness. Many U.S. doctors have insisted that such sweeping claims were, at best, not fully proved. But sales of the little pills went right on up to tens of millions of dollars.

Last week the Federal Trade Commission, asking for a showdown, cited three leading sellers of anti-histaminics for false and misleading advertising. The complaints were issued against the Anahist Co. of Yonkers, N.Y. (Anahist) and the Bristol-Myers Co. (Resistab), both of which, under their own trade names, market thonzylamine hydrochloride (also known as Neo-hetramine when prescribed for hay fever). The third complaint was against the Whitehall Pharmacal Co., which sells pyranisamine maleate (Neo-antergan) under the name of Kriptin.

From the acres of advertisements used to push these products, FTC picked such claims as these for Anahist: "New Miracle Drug stops cold symptoms in a single day"; "Now say Goodbye to colds with Anahist"; "Prevents sneezing, coughing and running noses." For Resistab: "Kills colds in one day"; ".. . To guard my family against colds." For Kriptin: "Kill a cold at the very start--kill it completely--not in days but in hours"; "No more sneezing --stopped-up nose--aches and pains--no more miserable days in bed trying to 'outlast' a cold."

The fact is, said FTC, these drugs are neither a cure nor "an adequate or competent treatment" for the common cold or its manifestations, nor will any of them prevent colds.

FTC stepped on the toes of another federal agency when it questioned advertising claims that Anahist and Resistab are perfectly safe when taken as directed on the package. The Food & Drug Administration, convinced that the anti-histaminics are safe in the recommended doses (usually with an added warning against driving a car if the user becomes drowsy), had allowed them to be sold without prescription.

The drug manufacturers leaned heavily on FDA's clearance, on clinical studies recently completed or still in progress, and on fan letters from cold sufferers who thought that the pills had worked fine. Anahist announced that it was increasing its advertising schedules.

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