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You would have been forgiven for being surprised on Sept. 12 when a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration concluded that the active ingredient in Sudafed PE and other over-the-counter decongestants is completely ineffective. It was front-page news, birthed myriad explainer stories on the internet, and even inspired a lawsuit against companies that sold the medicine, phenylephrine.

Yet when T.J. Parker, the entrepreneur and pharmacist who sold PillPack to Amazon, saw the news, he tweeted, “Didn’t everyone know this?”

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He had a point.

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