Every human with a nose knew it didn’t work, because when you took it, it didn’t work. The fact it was marketed was purely a regulatory exploit by pharmaceutical companies. The truth is, they could have continued to let pseudoephedrine be behind the counter and it would have been fine. But someone realized phenylephrine was approved OTC and sounded sort of like pseudoephedrine, so they could claim the shelf space and edge pseudoephedrine products.

Their defense to the FDA in being allowed to continue to market despite being proven even before they began their cynical ploy was consumers want convenience, which sadly is clearly true, that despite knowing if you walked five feet further and got the pseudoephedrine they would get relief they grabbed the drug conveniently placed. Fortunately lobbying money only went so far this time.