Interesting topic. My uncle started out in this business. Was for some time heading the Astra office in Italy. Came up with the novel idea of parrallel import. Quit Astra and started bying Losec from Italy and selling it to the Swedish pharmacies with a formidable profit. Made British Times Rich List this year.
Cough medicine for children..yes. Typically a combination of ethylmorphine and epinephrine and has been used for kids for ages with plenty of side effects, but actually very little scientific evidence in favor of any significant effect. Funny how that works. Just a month ago, a Swedish doctor got a warning for prescribing one of the most popular cough siraps ever. Apparantly the parents reported a very common side effect and when the case was reviewed the disciplinary board noted that the kid was six months younger than the lower age limit for that medicine. A paramount joke. Everyone knows that we, particularly pediatricians, prescribe a lot of medicines to kids much younger than the age limit - all the time.
The effect of this is that the national health board goes digging in the scientific archives in pursuit of evidence - and what do you know - there are practically none!
Same with the traditional treatment for RS virus infections. Since stonehenge they all got steroids and airway dilating inhalations. Turns out every quality study made shows no significant improvement at all. We still use it, of course.. cause we know it helps.
Sorry, spell check out.