HEALTH

Over-the-Counter Use of Children’s Motrin Backed: A Food and Drug Administration committee has recommended that the drug be approved for sale as a painkiller and treatment for fever, the Federal Filings Inc. news wire reported. Children’s Motrin, made by Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Products Co., currently is dispensed by prescription only. Federal Filings said the FDA’s Arthritis and Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee based its decision on data from a Boston University research project that was sponsored by McNeil. The FDA said the study, which examined use of the drug by more than 50,000 children, found few adverse side effects, Federal Filings reported. The FDA is not bound to follow the committee’s recommendations but usually does so.