In Brief: CDC calls for safer cough/cold delivery, USPlabs toes the line, Neptune disputes fine, and more

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers say drug-delivery innovations are needed to prevent children’s unsupervised use of cough/cold drugs. “Addressing unsupervised ingestions has the greatest potential for further reductions” in children’s cough/cold drug-related adverse events, say the researchers led by Lee Hampton, of CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. Their study, based on data from emergency room treatments from 2004-2011 and published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics, noted the voluntary withdrawal of cough/cold OTCs for infants in 2007 and label changes in 2008 to warn against use with children under 4 led to a reduction in ER treatment of children for related adverse events. However, following those changes, unsupervised ingestions were reported in roughly two-thirds of the 2,138 relevant ER treatments for children under 2 and in nearly 90% of the 4,092 cases for 2- to 3-year-old children.

A previous CDC study found 3- and 4-year-olds could empty 82% of medicine bottles with child resistant caps not properly...