Cough-Cold and Flu

WASHINGTON — To combat teen abuse of over-the-counter medicines containing the cough suppressant dextromethorphan, Oregon Governor Kate Brown on Thursday signed legislation prohibiting the sale of DXM-containing products to minors.

The move makes Oregon the 14th state to pass an age-18 sales law, joining states across the country in recognizing that limiting teen access to DXM is a proven way to prevent abuse, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

In April, Drug Store News and Mack Elevation co-hosted the third annual New General Market Summit. The one-day thought leadership event examined the changing face of the American shopper — driven not only by the growth of multicultural and millennial consumers but also by the influence these consumers are having on all consumers — and how the best brands are able to connect on an emotional level, as well as build community and advocacy with an ever-more diverse consumer.

SOLON, Ohio and SAN FRANCISCO — Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing has acquired a technology company that has been changing how retailers discover new suppliers.

The company on Tuesday announced the acquisition of RangeMe, which streamlines new product discovery in a way that ECRM said will complement the foundation it has laid in helping buyers discover new products and improve category planning effectiveness.

NEW YORK — The Women's Choice Award on Tuesday honored eos with the  2017 Women's Choice Award  based on recommendations from its female customers in a customer satisfaction survey conducted by WomenCertified.

ATLANTA — A new study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that flu vaccination reduced deaths, intensive care unit admissions, ICU length of stay and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu patients. This study is an important first step in better understanding whether flu vaccines can reduce severe flu outcomes even if they fail to protect against infection.

HELSINKI, Finland — According to the latest meta-analysis of three randomized controlled trials, zinc acetate lozenges may increase the rate of recovery from the common cold by three-fold, researchers from the University of Helsinki reported Thursday. On the fifth day of a cold, as many as 70% of the zinc lozenge patients had recovered from that cold as compared to 27% of the placebo patients.

BOSTON — An international team led by Alessandro Vespignani of Northeastern University has developed a unique computational model to project the spread of the seasonal flu in real time using Twitter.

According to the researchers, posts on Twitter in combination with key parameters of each season's epidemic, including the incubation period of the disease, the immunization rate, how many people an individual with the virus can infect and the viral strains present, nets a real-time tracking of flu progression.