Posting of Vicks Nyquil and DayQuil Warning Letter Was a Mistake, FDA Says

Remember earlier this week, when we reported that the Food and Drug Administration had sent a warning letter to the makers of some Vicks NyQuil and DayQuil cold remedies expressing concerns about vitamin C contained in the products?

It turns out, the FDA now says, that it was all a big mistake.

The FDA said today that the warning letter addressed to Procter & Gamble about Vicks DayQuil Plus Vitamin C and Vicks Nyquil Plus Vitamin C products was posted to the FDA Web site in error. The letter had pointed out that FDA rules forbid combining vitamin C and other active ingredients in the over-the-counter products.

Oops. So we’re left to wonder, did someone at the FDA hit “Send” instead of “Save” or what? Officials gave no real indication of how the warning letter accidentally ended up on the Internet for the whole world to see.

“The posting occurred due to an internal systems error, and no warning letter has been sent to Procter & Gamble,” the FDA said in a short, two-sentence statement on the mix-up. “The agency regrets any confusion caused by the posting.”

Of course, this all raises another interesting question: Is the FDA planning at some point to send a warning letter to P&G about Nyquil and DayQuil products fortified with vitamin C? They must be, or else the FDA just sits around all day and drafts warning letters that officials have no intention of ever sending to companies, which seems like an enormous waste of time and a little strange.

We suspect this whole incident is kind of like when a news agency’s pre-written obituary for a celebrity accidentally leaks out, much to the surprise of the celebrity who is still alive and well. More than likely, the FDA wrote the warning letter and was preparing to send it out, but someone goofed and posted it online before it was supposed to be released.

So, we’ll all wait to see if the same warning letter or a different version resurfaces soon, this time on purpose.

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