Walgreens class action claims store’s decongestant medicine contains ingredient the FDA has deemed ineffective

Walgreens class action lawsuit overview

• Who: Plaintiff Krystal Rampalli has filed a class action lawsuit against Walgreen Co.
• Why: Walgreens allegedly falsely markets its phenylephrine medicine as effective at relieving sinus issues.
• Where: The Walgreens class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.

Walgreen Co. sells “Wal-Phed PE Nasal Decongestant Tablets” containing phenylephrine, an active ingredient the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has deemed ineffective at combating sinus issues, a class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Krystal Rampalli says she purchased the Walgreens phenylephrine medication to treat sinus issues but experienced no relief after using the product. She says she would not have purchased the drug had she known that it would be ineffective at treating her symptoms.

She says that similar drugs containing phenylephrine were deemed ineffective in 2015, but Walgreens continued to tout its Walgreens phenylephrine drugs as effective.

Rampalli claims that the active ingredients in Walgreens phenylephrine drugs cannot survive the human stomach conditions and therefore never reach the bloodstream in the nose, rendering the drug useless for relieving nasal congestion.

Walgreens phenylephrine meds introduced as alternative to pseudoephedrine meds, plaintiff explains

Drugs containing phenylephrine were introduced as alternatives for other medicines that could be misused by illicit drug producers to create methamphetamine, the Walgreens class action lawsuit explains. 

Earlier drugs contained pseudoephedrine, which is reportedly effective at relieving nasal congestion. However, medications containing pseudoephedrine were taken off the shelves in 2006 and moved behind the pharmacy counter, the Walgreens class action lawsuit says.

As a result, medicines containing phenylephrine “took the shelf space of older, truly effective drugs,” Rampalli says.

Once the effective medications were moved behind the pharmacy counter, consumers had two choices, according to the Walgreens class action lawsuit.

“The first choice is to buy phenylephrine based products as they would normally do, on the shelves; or consumers could opt to wait in a pharmacy line, often long and full of other likely sick individuals who wanted effective pseudoephedrine based products,” Rampalli says.

Consumers allegedly opted for the over-the-counter phenylephrine drugs because they were readily-accessible and were marketed as safe and effective.

The Walgreens class action lawsuit claims that drugs containing phenylephrine generated nearly $2 billion in sales last year.

Rampalli asserts claims for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, breach of express warranty, fraud, and fraudulent misrepresentation.

An FDA panel recently unanimously voted on a recommendation that cold and allergy medications containing phenylephrine are ineffective in pill form.

Have you purchased Walgreens phenylephrine products? Tell us what you think of the Walgreens class action lawsuit in the comments!

Rampalli is represented by Roy T. Willey IV, Paul J. Doolittle, and Blake G. Abbott of Pulin Willey Anastopoulo LLC.

The Walgreens phenylephrine class action lawsuit is Krystal Rampalli v. Walgreen Co., Case No. 1:23-cv-14015, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

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