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Volume 352:1403-1405 April 7, 2005 Number 14 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Approximately 1000 active ingredients are currently in use in more than 100,000 over-the-counter medications in the United States, with combined annual sales exceeding $17 billion. Many drugs have recently been switched from prescription to over-the-counter status; other such switches have been proposed and rejected, in decisions that have sometimes been controversial. Drugs that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for shifts to over-the-counter status include some nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and ketoprofen), histamine₂-receptor blockers (such as cimetidine, ranitidine, and famotidine), topical antifungal agents, and nicotine-based smoking-cessation products. Recent controversial decisions include those . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Strom is a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.

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