Actifed is a registered trademark for a combination antihistamine and nasal decongestant medication used for cold and allergy symptoms.
However, in response to widespread laws requiring products containing pseudoephedrine to be kept behind the pharmacy counter, Pfizer changed Actifed's U.S. formula in late 2006 to contain phenylephrine HCl 10 mg as the nasal decongestant and chlorpheniramine maleate 4 mg as the antihistamine before the product was reacquired by GSK.
In 2023, a Food and Drug Administration panel concluded that phenylephrine was ineffective as a nasal decongestant when taken orally.
The American pharmacy chain Walgreens produced a house-brand version of Actifed, Wal-Act, which used the original pseudoephedrine/triprolidine formula.
[7] When Actifed was made available over the counter, former astronauts from the Apollo missions appeared in commercials promoting the product.