Nurofen products in Australia are "misleading"

[Annie Bynnol]

Nurofen Back Pain, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Migraine Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache all contain one active ingredient namely 342mg of ibuprofen lysine which is equivalent to 200mg of ibuprofen.Source

 

So why does normal Nurofen cost so much less than the other versions of Nurofen?

Why does normal Nurofen cost so much more than plain Ibuprofen?

 

Are Nurofen misleading us?

They are misleading Australians where the Federal Court said the products must be taken off Australian shelves within three months and ordered to publish correction notices in newspapers and on its website and to pay the ACCC's court costs.Source

[geared]

So why does normal Nurofen cost so much less than the other versions of Nurofen?

Why does normal Nurofen cost so much more than plain Ibuprofen?

 

because people will pay for it, thats why.

[JFKvsNixon]

Nurofen Back Pain, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Migraine Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache all contain one active ingredient namely 342mg of ibuprofen lysine which is equivalent to 200mg of ibuprofen.Source

 

So why does normal Nurofen cost so much less than the other versions of Nurofen?

Why does normal Nurofen cost so much more than plain Ibuprofen?

 

Are Nurofen misleading us?

They are misleading Australians where the Federal Court said the products must be taken off Australian shelves within three months and ordered to publish correction notices in newspapers and on its website and to pay the ACCC's court costs.Source

 

Branded medicines have always cost a lot more than unbranded medicines. All that advertising does't pay for itself you know.

[biotechpete]

Whilst not specific to this case, there is more to a medicine than it's active ingredient. The formulation, coating, delivery method etc can have fairly large impacts on the drug efficacy and metabolism.

 

AFAIK, Reckitt-Benckiser were claiming that the specific tablet formulations were different, although its not clear from the article that they were not different, just that those differences were not proven to alter the DMPK profile of the tablets.

 

EDIT Actually it does say that the products were identical, but are sold in the UK as slightly different products (caplets, capsules)

Edited December 14, 2015 by biotechpete

[geared]

They failed to prove in court there were any significant differences between their various products, so perhaps it was all a branding exercise?

[Cyclone]

Pretty obviously just branding, there's no way to coat a tablet or administer ibuprofen orally in a different way to cause it to somehow target your back, your head or your pelvic area.

[999tigger]

I thought it was pretty outrageous by them. I always look at whats in a product. O make do with bog standard Ibuprofen.

[biotechpete]

They failed to prove in court there were any significant differences between their various products, so perhaps it was all a branding exercise?

 

Most probably, it's a mixture of the two. They pay people to come up with new ideas of products they can tweak and market as different products, without having to go through the regulatory issues of a new product. I would guess that they do believe that, for instance, putting the ibuprofen in a soft capsule, which will start to break down in the mouth, will enable swifter uptake. They probably don't have the detailed drug metabolism profile data to back it up, because they are not a pharma company, they are a household product company.

 

Other companies do the same thing eg there's not much difference between toilet duck fresh discs and mr muscle toilet power discs, but they are two different brands at different prices made by the same company.

[Cyclone]

I always buy the unbranded product if possible when it comes to over the counter medicine. Ibuprofen is the same no matter what colour the box is. The only difference might be whether it's enteric coated or not (in fact with Ibuprofen it should always be).

 

---------- Post added 14-12-2015 at 15:18 ----------

 

Most probably, it's a mixture of the two. They pay people to come up with new ideas of products they can tweak and market as different products, without having to go through the regulatory issues of a new product. I would guess that they do believe that, for instance, putting the ibuprofen in a soft capsule, which will start to break down in the mouth, will enable swifter uptake. They probably don't have the detailed drug metabolism profile data to back it up, because they are not a pharma company, they are a household product company.

 

Other companies do the same thing eg there's not much difference between toilet duck fresh discs and mr muscle toilet power discs, but they are two different brands at different prices made by the same company.

 

In reality if you buy all four products you'll find that they are actually identical (I suspect).

Whilst what you say is true, a liquid delivery might be absorbed faster, that's not what was being sold here. They claimed that each product somehow targeted the specific type of pain, a claim that is simply untrue.

 

Also, ibuprofen aggravates the stomach, so don't all oral delivery mechanisms need to be enteric coated?

[JFKvsNixon]

I always buy the unbranded product if possible when it comes to over the counter medicine. Ibuprofen is the same no matter what colour the box is. The only difference might be whether it's enteric coated or not (in fact with Ibuprofen it should always be).

 

It needs to be noted that enteric coated ibuprofen does not protect against the potential side effects such as stomach bleeding. The thing that raises the risk is how the drug works, not were it dissolves.