The Detroit News. ViroPharma Inc. hopes to have a pleconaril pill intended for treating colds on drug stores shelves in 2001. The firm estimates Americans make between 30 million and 36 million doctor visits a year for colds, making this the most common medical complaint doctors hear. But the fact is, doctors can do nothing for the common cold, although they keep trying.
Estimates vary, but doctors prescribe antibiotics for perhaps half of all cold victims they see.
These drugs will not cure colds. Except in the rare cases where people have bacterial complications, they do nothing to ease the symptoms. They are just expensive placebos. Yet one recent study found that 12 percent of all antibiotic prescriptions for children are for colds. All of this suggests that if pleconaril actually does something to ease a cold, it will be avidly prescribed.