NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wal-Mart, the number one retailer, will place all over-the-counter cold medicines containing a key ingredient used in the manufacture of illegal drugs behind the pharmacy counter, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The most commonly abused products containing the decongestant pseudo ephedrine, which can be used in the production of the illegal drug methamphetamine, will be moved behind the pharmacy counters by June, said Wal-Mart (unchanged at $47.02, Research) spokeswoman Jacquie Young. Young added that solid dose products containing the ingredient will be moved by September.

Young said that 60 percent of the 3,159 stores nationwide had already moved the over-the-counter products as part of a policy that Wal-Mart adopted in 1997. Also, customers in Wal-Mart stores had already been limited to two or three packages of cold or cough products per purchase, depending on the state.

Wal-Mart's move follows similar announcements by retail giants Albertson's Inc. and Target. Albertson's (down $0.05 to $26.05, Research), a Boise, Idaho-based firm with pharmacies in 2,000 of its stores nationwide, announced Monday that over-the-counter cold medicines containing pseudo ephedrine will be moved behind the pharmacy counter. This following an April 18 announcement by Target (down $0.41 to $46.61, Research), which has pharmacies at all of its 1,330 stores nationwide.

The retailers appear to be bracing themselves against potential lawsuits from anyone who might be negatively affected by misusing the drugs, said Edward Weller, analyst for ThinkEquity Partners, who was interviewed after Albertson's made its announcement on Monday. The move should have a negligible affect on sales, he added.

"The potential loss is greater than the actual loss, and I think the actual loss is tiny," said Weller.

The companies did not name specific products, but pseudo ephedrine is the active ingredient in many Pfizer products, including cold medicine Sudafed and Sinutab, as well as children's medicine Pediacare. The ingredient is also found in nasal spray Afrin, produced by Schering-Plough, based in Kenilworth, N.J.

Pfizer's consumer healthcare sales, which includes over-the-counter drugs, totaled $3.5 billion in 2004, a fraction of the company's $52.5 billion in total sales last year. Pfizer (Research) did not break out an over-the-counter sales figure.

Schering-Plough (Research) reported $1.1 billion in consumer healthcare sales last year, including $578 million in over-the-counter sales, a fraction of the company's $8.3 billion in total sales for 2004.